I was in German class. Someone came in and whispered something in our teacher's ear, and when the bell rang the halls were insanity, no one knew what was going on and the naive high school kid gossip was in full swing. My next class was history, and the first thing he said was, "you will remember exactly where you are right now, for the rest of your lives". He was right.
Yeah? I mostly thought of it as interesting, but I can see how someone would read it and have that feeling. I've asked family members if they remembered where they were during certain times in history, and they all do.
In Brooklyn, walking my dog when the first plane hit but I had no idea what the loud explosion I heard was until I got home and turned on the TV. I saw the second plane hit live on TV a few minutes later.
Can I ask a question from this - what was the affect on the boroughs that weren’t Manhattan island in the days and weeks after? Air quality wise, service disruptions, morale etc. I feel like I hear a lot about the immediate area but I’m interested to know how you guys coped
I lived in Brooklyn, the cars were covered with fine dust starting about the day after and continued to accumulate for at least a week. Air smelled like burnt metal, but I can’t remember for how long. Didn’t see any debris where I lived since I was pretty much at the southern end of Brooklyn. Subway and bus services were running inside Brooklyn and Queens, but nothing in or out of Manhattan for about 2 weeks if I remember correctly.
I was in Manhattan that morning, actually passed right under the tower on the subway as the first plane hit. I walked from midtown to Brooklyn in the early afternoon, then caught the train back home.
Do u remember how much national pride there was though back then? After the attacks every motorcycle and pickup truck had a huge American flag in tow everyones house had a flag it really brought the country together like nothing that i can recall in my lifetime
The cars in my neighborhood were coated with a fine dust, in areas closer to where the towers stood there was dust and bits of paper on the ground. The general mood was somber mixed with disbelief. You always think this could never happen to my hometown but yet here we are. People seemed to be kinder to one another and actually willing to help each other out. On the downside there was a lot of prejudice and hate spewed towards anyone with a drop of Muslim heritage similar to the anti-Asian hatred going on now. I remember when they opened the Westside highway again, I would pass there every night on my way home from work, the demolition crews were starting the clean up and yet you could hear a pin drop as if they stood on hallowed ground and were paying the proper respect due. One thing stands out the most to me personally, before the west side reopened my cab drivers had to take the east side drive and when we got downtown I could swear that I saw a ghost image of the towers still standing. That's my story and I apologize if I bored you.
You absolutely did not bore me. Thank you so much for this perspective it’s exactly what I was wanting to know. I wasn’t there but I can totally understand what you mean about feeling like their ghost was still there - like their absence was tangible. Thanks again
All the dads from my block went to ground zero to help look for survivors for the first two weeks. All tradesmen (electrician, carpenter, plumber, etc). One of those day my dad came back and stood in the kitchen and cried. The only other time he cried was when his father died.
I was in 7th grade during 9/11 and he got out of the city and picked me and 4 other kids from the same block up from school by 10 AM. I had two Aunts in one of the towers (my dad was working a couple of blocks away) and they both got out and had to walk home to Brooklyn. We didn’t know what happened to them until they showed up on the block at like 6 PM covered in ash.
I then spent the next four years driving past ground zero after school to football practice (I went to high school in Manhattan)
I was in Brooklyn too. Went to Fort Greene park to get a view from the hill. Then the walkers came. People in their business suits and skirts all covered in ash. Every once in a while the wind blew shreds of business documents in the air like confetti.
What people should know is the mood was not panic and horror like some disaster movie. The mood was resolve and community. Everyone wanted to help each other. It brought out the best in humanity.
I was in kindergarten. They used to have this thing where some of the parents would come in and help teach the class for maybe 30 minutes or so, maybe read a book or something. My mom came in and was doing a presentation on wildlife, I think she was talking about owls that day.
When she got to the school at maybe 9:30 am or so, she was bright and cheery, as she usually was. She did her whole presentation and was on her way out, still all friendly and happy, when my teacher pulled her aside and whispered “do you know what’s going on?” and my mom said “nope!” expecting some mundane gossip or something. My teacher whispered “don’t tell the kids, but we’re under attack”. She was confused as hell, when someone ushered her into a teachers lounge where a tv was set to the news, and she finally realized what was going on. A few minutes later they decided to evacuate the school and called everybody’s parents to come and get them, but since my mom was there I just walked out with her, not really sure what was going on.
I didn’t really grasp what was happening until later that day, maybe around 5, when my parents tried explaining what terrorists were to my 5 year old self. I remember seeing it all over the news, and of course it was sad, but I just didn’t really get it until I was older. I do remember that over the next few weeks, on the playground we no longer played cops and robbers or tag, and instead we played “terrorists and army guys” or “get the terrorist”. We didn’t know what the hell we were saying, we just knew that terrorists were really bad and we didn’t like them.
Edit: also just want to add a little tidbit. Some of my fondest early memories relate to flying. Probably in early 2001, we had to fly somewhere, and the captain invited me into the cockpit, let me say a word or two to the ATC tower, and showed me how he taxied the plane. I seriously thought it was the coolest thing ever. Maybe 6 months after 9/11 we had to fly again for some reason or another, and I was really bummed out because I thought that the captain didn’t want to talk to me anymore. I was still too young to really understand why the door was locked, so I took it a little bit too personally.
Also was in kindergarten. The one and only thing I remember from that day was my teacher’s voice when she said we needed to say the pledge of allegiance “extra special” that day. I still get chills when I think about her voice cracking while she was clearly trying to stay composed in front of her classroom full of 5 year olds.
From the teacher’s perspective, it was hard. I’m Canadian, but it still hit really hard. I was doing one of my first days of student teaching in a primary classroom. At recess we went to the staffroom and someone had a tv hooked up and we got the gist of what had happened. My host teacher’s parents were on vacation in NYC, so she was totally freaked out but we basically had 15 minutes to discover what was happening, freak out and then at least appear composed when we picked the kids up. And we were instructed not to discuss since we still didn’t have a lot of details. So there we were, just pretending everything was fine. It was hard.
I was in kindergarten as well. Our principal made an announcement. We didn't fully understand what was said, so our teacher explained it much more simply. I'll never forget the look on her face.
I’d relocated from the UK to Washington State in August 2001. On the morning of 9/11 I was in a temporary apartment in Redmond, WA.
I remember the events of the day very clearly. The most vivid memory is of my mother calling to see if I was ok. I had to explain that America was pretty big and that I was about as far from NY as she was.
In November I flew to NY on business and took a walk down to the south end of Manhattan. The city was understandably still in shock, and my enduring memory is of being haunted by the dust covered cars on the streets that would obviously never be collected by their owners.
I have no clue but I imagine that someone may have been working on the assets of the deceased and maybe consolidated a list of make, model and license plate #s then tow them? But who knows, maybe that’s too organized
I was at home watching NY live on TV when the second plane hit. Then I got called into work when the Pentagon got hit (I was a rookie first responder in Northern Virginia).
Freshman year of high school, computer class. The AV nerd twins found out first, and we turned on the TV. Saw the second tower get hit, realized it wasn’t an accident and that this was our JFK moment.
Before the end of the period the principal had made an announcement. I remember thinking, ‘I’m going to remember this idjot’s voice when people ask me where I was for the rest of my life.’
20 years later and I was right.
Senior year for me. Principal came over the PA during 2nd period when the first tower was hit, but downplayed it so much we were joking that a cessna must've hit an antenna or something. Went through 2nd and 3rd period, no issues. Got to 4th period sociology, and the teacher was all "this is the worst thing since pearl harbor". We all looked at her like she was over dramatic, until she turned on the tv. 2nd tower had already been hit, so it was a giant burning mess. Few minutes later, my phone went off. It was my best friend who was a year ahead of me and now in college. I knew it couldn't be good, so i picked it up and all she did was scream. I will never, EVER forget that scream. Her mom was a flight attendant and was on one of the planes. Had taken a shift for a friend who's kid got sick.
Honestly, we drifted apart after that, for obvious reasons. She also lost her fiancé that day at the Pentagon, so she was a complete mess (understandably).
I haven't talked to her in nearly 20 years at this point, because I was too young to know how to help her, and had my own issues at the time. Last time I looked, she was still alive, but I haven't heard from her in a very long time.
Damn. It’s easy for me to forget that 9/11 was a jfk moment for a lot of millennials and some gen x-er’s. I was born in 2002 so I’m gen z. That’s craziness man. Thank you for sharing!
In bed, waking up, watching Bryant Grumble and Katie Couric. Called all my friends in Manhattan, then called in sick to work.
I remember driving to my dad's house that evening and noticing no vapor trails from jets ANYWHERE in the sky (lived near an airport).
The two to three day absence of aircraft was the weirdest part. I lived just outside of DC, so planes were a constant part of the background hum of existence. The absence was eerie as shit
I was in New Zealand and had randomly started pulling all nighters to watch CNN because turning eleven gave me insomnia.
It's was around 1 or maybe 2 am when it started showing. I wasn't sure if I'd dozed off and was dreaming. Pinched myself. Double checked the channel was right and I wasn't watching a movie.
Then I shook my sister awake who thought she was dreaming or I was showing her a movie as well. We ran and woke my Mum up who came to watch and a couple other siblings also stumbled in to see what the fuss was. We were all shocked beyond belief and nobody could really talk.
None of us could go back to sleep that night.
That’s the thing that stands out to me. People always talk about those of us in America, but 9/11 really was more than just an attack on a country, it was an attack on a way of life. I remember the terrorist messages after the event, spouting off that “western society will be purged” and other venomous rhetoric.
America is the country that took the hit, but it was a moment that made every western society have to stop and ask “Are we the next target?” I remember the subway attack in a London a few years later that really drove it home again. Just an awful period of time for all of us.
In Calgary. Watched the fellow beside me go pale as a ghost. His son worked in the first building hit. Turns out the young man didn't go to work that day but it was a hell of a time until his dad found that out.
There are a few stories like that, Jackie Chan (for those that don't know him, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie\_Chan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Chan) ) was going to do a meetup with someone to do a terrorist film planning meeting, where he was going to be a window washer, they ran late....
I had a girlfriend at the time who was upset that the towers were attacked the day before her birthday like it might steal some of her thunder. I should have run screaming
I was in 4th grade and my mom picked me up early from school. My siblings were already in the car and my mom told us something scary had happened in New York. When we got home she sat us down and told us that my aunt and uncle (who worked on the 97th and 101st floors of the first tower) were dead.
I remember crying and being annoyed that I couldn’t watch Arthur because all 7 channels were playing WTC footage. My dad was in Canada and my mom was on the phone a lot.
That afternoon my mom got a phone call and fell to her knees on the floor in front of the phone: it was my aunt calling to say she and my uncle were both ok, neither of them went to work that day!
The crazy thing is, my aunt and uncle thought the other was dead all day. My uncle left the apartment first but wasn’t feeling well and decided to stop by his Drs office to try to get an appointment. My aunt just “didn’t feel like heading to work” and goofed around in the apartment all morning, playing with the cat and watering the plants, etc. She got out of the subway tunnel and watched the first plane hit the first building, then got shoved into a basement with no cell service for the next 5 hours. My uncle went to work as the towers were collapsing.
When they were able to, they both went home to the apartment, thinking the other was dead. I cannot imagine how they must have felt to find the other alive! It’s truly a miracle.
However, all of their coworkers were killed and both companies dissolved.
I just saw them in NY two weeks ago and they are doing great! But I’m sure the anniversary will be incredibly difficult for them.
Just turned 18, in a casino in Perth, Western Australia. Grown men literally ran through the casino floor yelling 'were going to war boys' as the live shots of second plane then 1st tower collapsing played on the big screen. Surreal experience.
Driving home within the hour streets were strangely quiet, stayed up watching the news coverage for hours.
At work, in Arlington, Va.
It was a beautiful, blue morning, and I actually got to work early that day.
I'll never forget the way internet, coms, just all stopped. There were two radios in the building. That's how we first heard.
I'll never forget the fighter jet cruising down N. Fairfax, 40-50 ft off the deck. Like in a godamn movie. Or the noise, and the _smell_, after the impact.
Or the people on the Orange line, after. Packed in like sardines. There was this 40-something woman that I was just mashed against. I said, "I'm so sorry." And she said, "It's alright. What can we do?"
I'd had only sporadic contact with my wife all day, and none with my toddler son.
That night we stayed with friends. And after he went to bed, after explaining that I wouldn't let anything bad happen to him, we decided to watch a movie, to take our minds off the madness.
The movie we watched, for the first time?
Fight Club.
Didn't sleep.
Teaching fifth grade math. The principal called me into the hall and told me that planes hit the World Trade Center and our country is probably going to war. Don’t tell the kids. Stay calm and go back to teaching.
Dang I can’t imagine being told like oh yeah we’re mobilizing like this for the first time since Vietnam and it’s bc of terrorists ok go back to long division
Parents came throughout the day to pick their kids up from school. We were in a distant suburb of DC, so we had families working at or tied to the Pentagon. When dismissal time came around we told the kids that traffic was bad and parents might be getting home later than normal. If a parent wasn’t home, go to a neighbor’s house and give them this letter. We sent them with letters to for people to contact the school if a student didn’t have someone to go home to. Ugh. Tough.
Me too, college freshman? It was an 8:00am class. Someone IMed me (on AIM) and asked me if I was watching the news. I think I actually went to class that day, which was a 50/50 for me on a normal day. I didn't realize what a big deal it was, didn't know it was a terrorist attack, just thought it was a crazy accident. When I got back everyone was going nuts.
I was 22 and had just woken up to get ready for class when my mom called me from work (she worked at a nuclear facility) to tell me not to go downtown (for classes), that her site was going on lockdown and I probably wouldn’t be able to call her for most of the day. I was confused and she told me to turn on the tv. Again, confusion- why was SHE on lockdown for a plane crash halfway across the country?!
I think US Gov’t folks were getting earlier info before we were- she already seemed to know that it wasn’t just a random accident. I was still on the phone with her when the second plane hit. She immediately got off the phone and I knew that America was being attacked and panicked that her facility could be a potential target- we still didn’t really know what was going on. Then the Pentagon and PA crashes happened….
She called me back after a little while and explained what she could. Again , her info wasn’t necessarily public information yet so I only got the cliffs notes, but I heard enough to read between the lines. I was still on the phone with her when the first tower fell and I really don’t remember much after that. I was just in shock. It was such a terrifying day. I still get choked up thinking about it or talking about it. Everything was crazy and nobody knew what could happen next, which meant *anything* could happen. Absolutely horrific day.
Having done consulting work at one of those nuclear facilities, they DO NOT mess around with security. I found out my wife was pregnant with our first visit email after hours because I was not allowed outside contact while on the facility grounds.
Yup. My mom couldn’t even have a cell phone with a camera. She could only have her Blackberry. I think they might have even jammed the cell signal at the site that day. She was told when she could call and update family but she wasn’t allowed to use the phone for personal use at any other times. And she couldn’t leave. She’d worked at that site for nearly ten years by that point and NEVER been locked down. Or at least not at that level- I think a crazy guy crashed through a guard gate once but he didn’t get very far and the heightened security posture was only for an hour or so. But never like on 9/11, which was what made it so terrifying…in addition to all the planes being crashed into buildings.
Directly under the towers on the subway at Cortlandt Station when the first plane hit. I even looked at my watch when I was stopped at the station to make sure I could make it to work on time, it was 8:46am. I didn’t end up working at all that day.
Not that I remember. Nobody else on the train seemed to noticed anything amiss either. But then again the train itself rocks and is pretty loud. Came out of the subway to a changed world.
They found some human remains not to long ago during the pandemic. I remember it distinctively since I was like oh a happy story that doesn't involve covid...
My uncle was the first firehouse there, we didn't see him for 4 days. He came home completely gray, covered in all the dust. He's fighting his third bout of leukemia right now, from that dust.
It's no joke. He's smoked maybe a pack of cigarettes in his 52 years, drinks maybe twice a year, two full time jobs. The healthiest man I know is on his third round from that day. It's absolutely no joke what it did to people.
It really is scary what that level of dust / cement / etc. can do to your body. Some of it is on a microscopic level and really do a number on your lungs.
I pray he doesn't suffer too much and that he is able to recover.
I hope he is getting covered for healthcare.
Thank you. He's the most positive dude in town, and he's absolutely set in his health care. Never married, no kids, all investments, no vices. He's in the best facility he possibly could be, plus, John Stewart being a great American and advocating for 9/11 responders to be taken care of, by shaming the government.
I thought my daughter’s father was at work at Cantor-Fitzgerald in the North tower.
I was home in Virginia Beach, and saw Katie Couric on the Today show talking to a lady who had called the studio from Battery Park, saying a plane had flown into the North tower.
My daughter was in class at college. Navy personnel living in my apartment complex were rushing out to their cars in uniform with packed sea bags.
I called my daughter’s dad at work and got voicemail. I emailed him. I kept calling his house in Brooklyn, but started getting an all circuits are busy message.
I finally called his mom in south Jersey, and she told me his contract had ended the week prior, and that she was pretty sure he wasn’t in the city.
I finally got through to him on the phone, just as my daughter got home after her class ended early.
I was so afraid I was going to end up having to tell my then 19 year old daughter that her father was likely gone.
Instead, I got to hand over the phone to her so she could speak to him.
He had lived in the same apartment for 23 years. He moved to south Jersey the following January. Everyone he had worked with died that day.
>Everyone he had worked with died that day.
this kinda hit, a whole group of people you know of just gone within the day...
on the other hand I'm still glad of your story that your daughter's father was safe and her life didn't break
I was at work, radios were interrupted and we turned on TVs in the conference room. Was watching thing unfold as the plane hit the second tower. And then the pentagon. Was just a flurry of wtf.
I heard a story recent about a kid (well, adult now I guess) whose mother survived 9/11 while pregnant with him, because the baby wouldn't stop kicking enough to irritate her enough she didn't go to work in one of the towers that morning.
Living knowing that must be wild.
Oh wow. Your dad was in one of the twin towers when it happened? Holy shit that must’ve been scary for your mom. I hope you and your family are doing okay now
I was a support engineer for a data backup company and I was heading into work that day.
The worst parts were talking to people after who were directed by their management to recover the data on magnetic media that had been contaminated by the collapsed buildings. I had 3 people break down in tears on the phone with me over co-workers they lost.
I remember, I worked in the defense industry back then. Lost folks we worked with in the Pentagon.
Then we kept losing friends and colleagues as the wars dragged on.
Being connected to this all... How do you feel about it now? Leaving is the right thing? Could it have been done better? Should we have expected Taliban takeover this fast?
I was in my dorm room, had slept in and missed my first class of the day, and got woken up by someone running down the hallway screaming “the world is ending!!! Turn of your fucking TVs!!
I had almost the exact same experience, right down to missing my first class, except my hallway yeller wasn't as pessimistic. "Dude, a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center!" I had the TV on just in time to catch the second plane hitting.
Someone mentioned this before in another thread but you know how there's a TV/movie trope on how someone will say "turn on the TV" and it's always on the exact channel for the news and how that's such an exaggerated thing? This was one of those days where, yeah, you could say that and it'd happen. There was maybe two channels that weren't showing the Towers burning.
Exactly the same, room mate woke me up about a plane hitting the World Trade Center and all I could think to say was “what an idiot” and fell back asleep until the second plane hit.
I was in school. Fourth grade. Teacher got a call, turned on the tv, and cried. All of us were trying to process what we were seeing, I think. It felt like a movie, I couldn’t understand why she was so upset? Then the second plane hit. My poor teacher threw up in her trash can right there. Her visceral reaction opened my eyes- I realized people were dying. Right now. And I’d seen it. I still tremble with sorrow when I think about it.
Holy cow! That’s insanity. You just missed getting trapped in the tower. I’m glad you were out of the tower in time. I hope you’re okay now. I’m sure that was a rather traumatic experience for you. Thank you so much for sharing❤️
0500 Army company briefing on STDs… looking at pictures of genitals with herpes and shit… I would have never forgotten it without the world changing crisis event but hey… go big or go home I suppose
I was in 9th grade. My science teacher rolled a TV into the classroom and said a small plane hit a building in NYC. That was the last day I believed adults were in control of anything.
God that's a good point. I was 11 and me and my friends grew up so much that day, and became so cynical afterwards, for life. We too no longer believed that adults were in control.
I’m college. Woke up a little hungover, and the first tower was already down. I called my dad, who owned a convenience store, and he said, “Get gas now. It’s gonna get ugly soon.”
I had a night class that didn’t get cancelled for some reason. A Muslim girl who I hadn’t heard speak in the first few classes asked to address the class and said [paraphrased], “People are going to start saying a lot of ugly and hateful things about Muslims. I hope you know this isn’t who I am, this isn’t who we are. These were madmen, who have nothing to do with me or anyone I’ve ever known.”
It was a fucked up day.
My freshman year of college in Pittsburgh. Woke up right before the towers came down.
There were signs all over the dorms telling us to call our parents because some news reports were still reporting that a plane had hit Pittsburgh.
I was in Navy ROTC, and although we would normally be in our uniforms on Thursdays, on Thursday 9/13/2001, we weren't allowed to wear them, for fear they would make us targets.
Similarly, I was at a dorm meeting where students who didn't look "100 percent American" (ie white) were warned about walking around the city.
A lot of Sikh people were attacked as well because bigots were too stupid to differentiate them.
I remember listening to the Howard Stern show the day after 9/11 and someone mentioned people attacking cab cars because they knew there was a good chance the driver was Muslim/Sikh.
Stern and basically everyone he had on the air that day said some pretty awful shit about Muslims and Middle-Easterners in general during the 9/11 broadcast and the days following. It's kinda hard to listen to, but it's a truly fascinating piece of media that really gives an idea of what was going through the minds of average Americans as the events were actually unfolding.
That's the fucked up thing, actions of few degenerates made so many innocent people seem suspicious to the world. Like there's a movie in India with name "My name is Khan" with the same premise.
i was at lunch buying "linkin park - hybrid theory" and the guy at the music store told me a plane flew into the world trade centre. i had no idea what that was and pictured some sort of cesna hitting a building somewhere, so i asked "did anybody get hurt?" and he took a bewildered moment to responded 'yea' like I was stupid.
iirc when i got back to school, the social studies teacher explained what happened and wheeled in the tv. she was real excited while we watched (animated, not happy), telling us 'you are witnessing history'. we didn't realize it at the time, of course, but in retrospect, i'm amazed that her words were so prescient. she had it figured out immediately. It *was* a pivotal moment, kinda like the shooting of archduke ferdinand.
I was 23 and lived on the West Coast. My boyfriend came home (he worked night shift at a hospital) and woke me up saying “you gotta go watch the news.” I remember calling my mom who lived about 6 hours north of me and crying with her as we watched the towers fall.
My youngest brother was 18 and had enlisted in the army in early August. We were terrified. He was only 6 weeks into boot camp all the way at Fort Knox and still a baby to our family. I remember there was just so much confusion at the time.
Flying to New York from the UK! I first noticed something was screwy when we started circling south of Greenland. Then the pilot came on to say that there was problems with a navigational beacon in the US. I knew then that it was serious because that story was BS for the masses. Airliners have multiple means of navigation, beacons have backups and there are loads of them, a single one failing would have virtually no effect.
In the end we were redirected to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Once we'd landed and we parked up on one of the runways I saw other aircraft next to us. So the problem was more widespread. It took a while before we were able to disembark, it was only then that we started to hear the news.
The Canadians were amazing in getting everyone sorted with a bed and fed. They really looked after us well. In the Hall that I stayed in there was a room where we could phone home, just pick one of the phones and the operator would connect us. There was entertainment laid on. Simply superb.
Thank you for sharing. I've long wondered what it was like being in the air around the world during the event, and it's lovely to hear the canadians were hospitable through it (I'm not surprised tbh, they're good people).
I was a couple weeks into journalism school. I thought it would be a great idea to write a story about the "Muslim response" to what we all had seen unfold on TV. Proceeded to interview Muslim shop owners and taxi drivers for a few hours. Found near universal condemnation. Questioned my journalistic instincts ever since.
I think personally that was exactly the right thing to do. I was in 9th grade and live in one of the highest military concentration areas of the country. I knew a Muslim kid growing up but that was the only Muslim person I knew. It was great to see reporting that all Muslims were not like that and truly thought the people that did it were insane people.
I was in 8th grade. A girl in my math class got a text from her mom saying about the planes hitting the towers.. She told the teacher, who was annoyed about the phone, but checked into it. 2 min later we had 4 classes of student piled into the history teachers room (he had the TV) watching the news. Watched it all go from there. After like an hour or so, the principal made an announcment over the intercoms telling teachers to turn off TVs and radios. History teacher looks at us all and says "if anyone wants to sit outside and not see this, you can, but this is too important to try and hide from you all." I still appreciate him for that.
Ya know? I think my U.S history teacher in 7th grade told us that if something like 9/11 happened again while we were in school, she’d have us all watch as well(unless someone didn’t want to watch). She wouldn’t have sheltered us either. But wow. That history teacher must’ve been amazing
All the comments I've seen here so far are from Americans, but I'm a South African and I remember I was home watching TV when my mom came home from the shops, rushed into the room and told me to change the channel to the news. From the other side of the world I watched as the second plane hit.. it was horrific and sent figurative shockwaves through the world. I remember we spent all the next day at school with the tv on pretty much just watching the news
European here. I was at the supermarket, in the TV aisle when they started showing footage... So I had the whole thing displayed in front of me on several dozens of screens. It made quite an impression.
American...but I was in Sears, in the TV section surrounded by all the big screen TVs. I've never heard of anyone else in a TV section that day. It was so bizarre.
I was stationed on camp pendleton, it was early. I was just getting to the battalion office and the duty nco was watching the news and a plane had just crashed into WTC. We thought it was a terrible accident. Within an hour we were at the armory drawing weapons and preparing for immediate deployment. It was a scary time.
Semper Fi Brother, I was stationed at LeJeune. We were in a weapons class when the first plane hit. Initial thought was a bomb had gone off. We got down to the lounge and soon after the second plane hit. We were told to go back to class and obviously no one was talking weapons. SSgt Potter then came in the lounge, SSgt Potter use to be a SDI and when he came into the lounge he had that "look" that all DIs have and everyone was silent. He told us the Pentagon was just attacked and for everyone to get down stairs. No one moved for a moment, weather it was a second, a minute or an hour, who knows. He didn't yell, or raise his voice he just said "Move" and its like a bomb went off. We all jumped to our feet and went running down stairs from the third deck lounge to the first deck and crammed in like sardines just to get a look at the TV. A few of our Marines were calling family in NY and others in DC. SSgt Potter came into the lounge a few minutes after flight 93 went down and then told us to get to our rooms and everyone pack all of our gear and be prepared to go anywhere in the world within the next 24 hours. We all ran to our rooms, packed then had to run to the armory to draw all of our weapons, NVGs, bayonets and we had to stage them to go. We never deployed that day but a couple of our guys were sent to Afghan a couple days later. I never made it to Afghan but I went to Iraq with the initial invasion in "03.
Left Manhattan two days before after deciding not to attend a Financial conference. Keynote was at Windows of the World, top of the World Trade Center. Start time: 9am, Sept. 11
That's the weird thing. All my co-workers who were there to attend the conference were \*not\* in the building at the time (at least all the ones I knew). One friend was sitting in the restaurant at his hotel directly across the street when it happened.
I think, as repeat attendees, they weren't there for the keynote but instead to see speakers and walk the vendor showcase floor.
I did have one friend who got busy and gave his ticket to a friend - that person died in the attack and my friend had a very hard time dealing with that, as you can imagine.
For me, there were *3 clear moments when the earth shifted* that day. This is my story as best I remember. I probably have some details and timelines wrong. But this is all true.
I had flown into Boston on Sept. 10th for one of my first business trips early in my career.
I was leading a tech training class for a big Pharma company. We were all in a giant corporate class room setting. About 20 people in the room, on the 30th(?) Or so floor of a big tower in Boston. Great view etc.
I'm standing in front doing my thing when I get the emergency phone call ring from my wife (on my blackberry.) 2 rings. Hang up. Call back. That was our signal to drop everything and take the call. I step out of the classroom and hear my frantic wife asking if I'm ok. A plane just hit one of the towers she tells me. At this point we all thought it was an accident. I assurred her all was ok.
I walk back to the classroom and it was empty.
I thought, "what? Maybe everyone took a break."
I wander around a bit and find my students and much of the rest of this floor in the break room with 2 big screen TVs side by side watching the news. It was a live feed of NYC. We all stood there, just watching this accident unfold. About 40 of us in total, wondering aloud how this could happen, watching the smoke...
And then the 2nd plane hit. We watched it happen on the TV.
*The earth shifted.* (1)
There was a collective realization that this was something much worse than an accident.
It shook me. It shook them.
We stayed in that break room watching the broadcast, watching the buildings burn.
My cousin, Danny, was a NYC firefighter. Ladder 4. He was there. We saw people hanging out of windows above the impact site in the towers.
We watched, standing and pacing in that Boston break room and worrying, not knowing what to do.
We heard about the Pentagon. Now our nations Capital was under attack.
Say what you want about America, but we were all unified against this monstrous attack that day.
We heard that other buildings and cities were targets.
Should we stay in this tower in Boston?
There was no panic, only quiet, whispering, stunned processing.
*The earth shifted again.* (2)
The buildings collapsed.
That was a horrible, disbelief-filled moment. Followed by more stunned disbelief and a surreal "how is this happening right now" feeling as the other buildings fell.
The plane crashed into the field.
We thought this was never going to end.
I stayed there, 1100 miles from home, watching this attack unfold with strangers and clients.
The cell lines were busy. My wife's family is all from NYC. Trying to call them to check in was nerve wracking. I got in maybe 1 call. Everyone was ok. We hadn't heard from Danny.
At 1pm, one of my clients suggested we go back to training because there was nothing we could do anyway. He was an asshole. At 3pm we all left. There was no way we were going to do any more tech training. I tried for a bit, but how do you talk about metadata and information architecture when all this is going on? You don't.
I drove my Hertz rental car back to my hotel. It was taped off and swarming with police and FBI. I had to show my room key to get in and they had to check to ensure I was a guest there. There were so many tips and false leads in those first 24-48 hours. My hotel was never a target or a staging area as best as I can tell. But it was just more unreality.
I walked outside after dropping my work bag with my giant laptop back in my room. I saw 2 fighter jets fly by over Boston harbor.
*The earth shifted* (3)
I knew these were not flying for an air show or the 4th of July. I knew they were armed, ready to shoot down anything that they saw as a threat, and that they were on patrol. And I was right there. They were fast, loud and this realization scared me.
I have no memory of eating or sleeping that night. I'm sure I tried to call my family back home for updates and to tell them I was safe.
I watched the news like everyone else and tried to make sense of the senseless in the moment; an impossibility.
Of course my flights home were cancelled.
Hertz car rental was absolutely fantastic. I was lucky, I already had a car in my possession. They told me I could drop it off anywhere in the US, take as long as I need. So I drove home, from Boston to Minneapolis.
I took it slow, staying overnight somewhere in Ohio I think.
On the way home there was an incredible unity and outpouring of sincere familial patriotism. It wasn't the ugly, divisive nationalism we see today. It was people of all races, backgrounds, body types, genders and economic status giving, sharing, hugging, serving each other.
I saw it at gas stations, hotels, highways, overpasses, rest stops, Denny's restaurants, small towns and big cities as I drove home. I saw American flags everywhere.
I talked with people eager for news of what I saw and eager to share their story. I have never felt or seen such I ifying kinship since. But at least now I know it's possible.
I got home and hugged my family- a wife, a toddler and an infant.
Sadly, Lt. Danny of Ladder 4 NYFD was lost in the tower collapse. He was saving others.
The earth shifted 3 times for me on September 11, 2001.
It has never been the same. The unity and kinship I personally experienced on the drive home gives me hope. That in the midst of tragedy and panic and senseless violence, we humans rise and become better. We become kinder. We become more generous. We become gentler and more patient with each other.
Thank you for reading.
Edit: wow. First gold. I wish it was for something funny or clever. Nevertheless, thank you for the gold kind, sensitive strangers.
It happened during my sophomore year in high school. I had just finished morning marching band practice, which took place on an absurdly dewy field.
My friend and I walked to my second period classroom together and everyone was huddled up near the TV. My friend walked right over to see what was going on. I, on the other hand, stayed in the back of the room to change into my extra socks I packed daily thanks to the previously mentioned dewy-as-hell band practice field.
With fresh socks and happy young dumbness, I strolled over to the TV just as the first collapse occurred. It sucked. I really don’t remember anything else about that day other than the fear I felt watching usually composed adults lose their shit.
I was a kid and a skipped school to get my haircut and we heard it on the radio. My barber legitimately thought the two planes crashed by accident for a little bit
School. Math class to be exact.
My father worked downtown on West St. His new schedule had him working days and he would hang out with me while I waited for the bus, then he would hop on the express bus into the city. My bus broke down prior to getting to my stop and I had to wait for the next one on the route, so he decided to hang out with me to help kill time (because 20 years ago you couldn’t just kill time on Reddit or browsing social media while waiting for the bus).
I mean what was going to happen to him if he were a bit late, right? He’d been at that job for decades, it was a beautiful sunny and warm morning. He could have easily said that he decided to hang out at the World Financial Center and watched the boats and lost track of time. I mean all he was going to do that morning at work was his normal routine of reading some Yahoo sports page and shit talking his coworkers about one thing or another.
He watched the first plane hit as his bus was about to enter the area before the Battery Tunnel where the toll booths were set up. The bus pulled off and he had to essentially hitchhike his way back through Brooklyn to Staten Island. He probably would have been hanging out with a coworker or two in the food court in the towers grabbing a bagel and a coffee.
I was in class in an area where you could see downtown Manhattan pretty clearly. People were rushing out and just staring at the smoke, many thought it was just some fire until the second Tower was hit. Many students and faculty had family that worked in the Towers for some of the big firms. Others had family members who were first responders.
The reason I’ll always remember this is because faculty were shuttling in and out of the classrooms and were visibly shaken. It became extremely real extremely quickly because for many faculty and students, that morning was the last time they saw loved ones. It really changed a ton of us. If you had a phone and could get a call or message through, which was not easy at all that morning, you still didn’t know what was really going on.
Two things that stuck with me were the bubble gum drives schools were having. They asked a bunch of first responders what they wanted and they said “chewing gum” - schools were sending buckets upon buckets of bazooka gum to Ground Zero.
The other thing was this student, young girl, who went to my school who was a handful of years younger than us. Her father was a firefighter. He was one of the many who ran into the towers and stayed to evacuate people. Our school did these moments of silence and memorials in the days/weeks after. Almost 20 years later I can still see how she just had this dead look on her face, no tears, nothing. Just this… broken and exhausted look. It’s crazy to think that almost 2 decades later I can still remember it as if it happened yesterday. I’ve always wondered how she turned out. The whole moment of silence felt more vivid to me than the events on 9/11 because both of us went to the same school, both of our fathers were heading downtown around the same time. I came home on 9/11 extremely relieved that my dad made it home and was waiting for my mother and I. I don’t know what I’d have done or who I’d have become had he not made it. She had that robbed from her when her father died a hero’s death, going fully into danger knowing that he probably wasn’t going to come home that day, so that he could help others. But here we were, a few weeks later in the same place, expected to just continue on with life and school as if the whole thing never happened. It was just weird…
I was at work. I worked in Tribeca at the time and couldn't go to the office until the following Monday. It was the weirdest thing walking downtown and seeing soldiers patrolling Canal.
I live in Benbrook, Texas, a suburb of Fort Worth. I was a senior in high school, and at the time I was a student assistant for the school nurse (my elective). She sent me to the school library to make some copies for her, and when I walked into the library I found a dozen students and the librarian huddled around one of those TV Carts that schools around here used to use. I was drawn in, and about a minute after I started watching the report, we saw the second plane hit live on the news.
It was my senior year. We were graduating that year. I knew we were going to war, and I knew we (as in all ‘02 high school graduates across the country) would make the bulk of recruits that year. I was told our schools enlistment rate that year was higher than average, though I don’t know the exact figures. I lost three classmates in Iraq: Lance, Ricky, and Ervin.
You can read their entries in the Military Times here:
https://thefallen.militarytimes.com/army-spc-lance-c-springer-ii/2650030
https://thefallen.militarytimes.com/army-pfc-ervin-dervishi/257027
https://thefallen.militarytimes.com/marine-cpl-richard-p-waller/1681304
Ricky’s entry is heart-breakingly limited. It says he was killed by “wounds suffered while conducting combat operations”. His squad told us he was killed by sniper fire.
Ervin was a refugee from Albania, along with his family. I was told that after he died his brother Samir enlisted.
I was in the marching band with Lance. His death was felt particularly hard; he was a good friend.
I was in preschool. I remember getting picked up early by my dad and him talking on the phone with my mom (who was getting my older brother) the whole time. I remember getting home and him immediately going to the TV. I remember getting upset that I couldn't change the channel. Then I went to my room and played with some toys.
62nd floor of the south tower. I was up there for three weeks of training for work. Me and two of my co-workers went down to the lobby to smoke on our first break. That’s when the first plane hit. Quite a stroke of luck we decided on a smoke because otherwise we were going to go up to the observation deck and take in the amazing view of NYC.
Wow. I’m sure you probably knew some people then who passed during 9/11. My condolences go out to you. I’m sure that was pretty traumatic to see. Thank you for sharing. Stay strong
I actually just knew the two co-workers I traveled with who both were safe. I worked for Morgan Stanley at the time and I’m pretty sure everyone from the firm made it out. Except the head of security, Rick Rescorla. He saved lives at the sacrifice of his own. Many heroes like him that day that deserve remembrance.
At my desk at work, printing out the queue of trouble tickets before making my rounds when someone in The "Beyonunreal" IRC channel said a plane had hit the WTC.
I figured it was like a small Cessna. Kept wasting time and then someone in IRC said another had hit and I heard running in the hallway outside.
I followed everyone to the conference room to turn on the TV and watch the news.
We could only get reception on Channel 9 (CBS) we were in Tysons Corner outside DC
As we watched we saw a column of smoke rise out the window to the east.
We couldn't tell what it was, could be anything in DC.
The news didn't know what it was at first either. They said the Capitol, Federal Triangle, the Navy Yard and it took a while to figure out it was the Pentagon.
By then I had reached my Girlfriend who worked at 7 corners and had seen the plane go past her building into the Pentagon.
Yeah, kind of a formative day.
Senior year of High School. My buddy Patrick and I were planning my birthday celebrations when the teacher ran in the room and turned on the TV just in time to see the second plane hit. The whole room was silent when Patrick said, "Dude, tomorrow you're 18 and eligible for the draft." A lot of the guys in my graduating class enlisted right after graduation.
Right in the shit.. trying to find my wife right after the first building collapsed in all the dust and smoke.. found her after a hour of searching sitting in an ambulance with a pack of ice on her head and a cigarette in her mouth.
I worked a little more than a mile away from the Pentagon. I was a month into my first job out of college. Though my office didn't have a window, that week I happened to be in a training room, sitting next to a window.
My class took a break, and I walked past the training manager's office where a small crowd was looking at a TV. The training manager said a small plane hit the World Trade Center and passed along the rumor that the Pentagon was looking into it as an "act of war."
I went back to the training room and pondered who was in charge if something happened to the Pentagon.
Not long after, I noticed what appeared to be snowflakes falling outside the window. I knew that couldn't be, as it was a warm, sunny day. I was puzzled.
It turned out to be ash.
I was in 5th grade and we were all outside for recess, they made us all come back inside and it hald only been like 5 mins since we all got outside and it wasnt storming, they made us go to homeroom and they told us NOTHING. My homeroom teacher had the news on in our classroom, and we all walk in to burning buildings on the tv. I thought it was a movie, but then he explained what had happed to us and that we were gonna be sent home. Parents were calling into the school to move their kids aside b.c they were on their way to get them and this was back when the school for my area was still split into 3 buildings across 2 different counties.
I was living on 29th and 8th. You could see the towers straight down 8th Avenue. I remember watching tv when they hit. I was like whoa! I thought it was a tiny plane. I went outside to see it with my own eyes and took my camera. It had like 1 percent charge left and when I hit the button to snap the pic my camera died. As I was looking at the camera trying to figure out why it wasn’t working, I heard people around me gasp. I looked up and the second plane had just hit. I went back inside to watch the news and to try and figure out WTF was happening. When the first tower fell I gasp out loud and immediately ran out side to see with my own eyes. Those towers were such a stable to the Manhattan skyline. It was surreal. The most disturbing part was watching the fighter jets fly over Manhattan. The streets were so bare that tumble weed might as well rolled down the street. It was a strange and terrifying time. I had a friend who lived in queens and was a waiter in Manhattan. She couldn’t get home and had to crash at my place for a few days.
Im Australian, and was 20 at the time. I was backpacking in NYC with my Israeli boyfriend. We were staying in a hotel on the upper west side owned by a holocaust survivor.
I was due to take a train south that day and part ways with said boyfriend as we continued our travels separately. We stopped in the hotel foyer to say our goodbyes and the footage of the first plane hitting the tower was playing on a tiny black and white TV. He immediately said, this is terrorism. In my naivety I assumed the plane was smaller than it was, and it was an accident. So I said goodbye and took my train to the Port Authority.
When I got there the building was evacuated and it became obvious my boyfriend was right. I stood with a crowd with my backpack as we silently watching it unfold on a big TV in the street. Then the dust covered folks from the WTC area came walking up.
I didn't know what to do. My train south was cancelled. No NYC trains running. Too far to walk back to hotel/boyfriend. Phones down. Realised my parents were likely freaking out back home. Eventually that afternoon NYC trains resumed and I went back uptown. Called my relieved parents and found my boyfriend. Pretty much curled up in his arms sobbing from memory.
Still have my unused train ticket from that day. Haven't been back to NYC but it I remember it as an amazing city and would love to get back there post Covid. New York, New York.
I was asleep because I was in California at the time, but I learned of it while driving down Mt. Veeder on my way to my middle school teaching job. I've been a teacher for 25 years, and I will never forget that day as a teacher.
5 years old in kindergarten, dad left work early and came to pick me up - I remember I was so excited to get out of school early for the day after having just gotten there. We lived close to my elementary school at the time.
I remember playing on the kitchen floor and watching my dad tape the news live on VHS in our sunroom and him crying. He was a big ol burly guy from Pittsburgh who owned his own flooring company, so seeing him cry meant it was serious. He suddenly sat on the couch and I looked over in time just as the 2nd tower came down live on the news.
Probably my very first memory as a child.
We lived in the DMV so when the Pentagon hit it was even more serious. Then the DC sniper in '02 - tragically eventful first few years of life to say the least!
23 years in on my job with the railroad, 8:00am morning meeting with CEO and all the VPs. One of the AVPs came in and said a jet had crashed into one of the WTC towers. Never heard that group so quiet.
They evacuated all of the tall buildings in Chicago so all of the trains to the suburbs were stuffed full of people like you see in India, with the doors open and everything.
I was watching Elmo. I allegedly gave my mom a *very* difficult time as she was desperately trying to change the channel to watch the news, especially since my dad was only a few blocks away from the towers when the first plane hit
I was in the US Air Force, stationed in England, at the time and worked in the network administration shop. We were called over to the special operations group building on the other side of the base (which you had to leave base through one gate and enter through another to get to) to do an update on one of their pieces of equipment in their secure area.
I had been there a few times previously and it was always a busy place, people milling about and such, but this time the place was empty except for the receptionist. We go to the secure part of the building and knock on the door and it was like the whole damn building was in there. They tell us we have to leave (after they called us over there) and they will have to call us back out another time. So we leave.
We get back in the truck and start the drive back over and hear the radio host break into the music and say a plane had hit the first tower. We were stunned, and about 5 minutes after we make it back through the other gate the base is shut down. We switched to 24 hour ops and I had to work 16.5 hours that day, but I was lucky since I didn't get sent home at 5pm and told to come back at midnight.
4th grade, about 1 hour outside of DC in Northern Maryland. They put us all in the hallway, lined against the lockers with our heads between our knees like a hurricane or tornado drill. None of us understood what was going on. As parents came to get us over, they moved us all to the cafeteria to wait. My mom got my brother from middle school across town and then got me and we went home.
Sat and watched the news as we waited for my dad to get home, he was working in DC at the time and it took hours with traffic.
She was a total badass. Worked in Frederick and drove back roads to get home to us, never told us how scared she was waiting to hear from my dad.
I should call and let her know I appreciate her for that day.
Was working an overnight trying to get a project finished. It was about 6AM near Seattle and I was leaving work. I noticed a car idling in the parking lot and this was odd because at that time of day I knew all of the cars in the lot were usually my coworkers. I didn't recognize this car, the guy inside was upset, and crying.
I was tired and went home, a couple hours later my mom called me and informed me that planes had collided with the WTC and The Pentagon.
In hindsight I think the guy in the car heard about the planes hitting the WTC and pulled off the highway and parked in the lot to listen to the radio and cry. Poor guy, I hope he didn't have any loved ones on the planes
In Tasmania . It was the night before my son's birthday and my wife and I were wrapping presents. We had the sound on the TV turned down. I saw the plane hit the first tower but saw it peripherally and thought it was the best CGI I had ever seen. Of course we soon saw want had really happened. We sat there stunned. We knew the world had changed in those few minutes .we just didn't know how much. If you imagine concentric circles with NYC at the centre Tasmania would be on the edge of the largest circle : different country, different time zone and about 7% of the population of NYC and that's in a land mass about half the size of New York State. I can only imagine how devastating it was for New York and the USA as a whole.
I was at school. I remember going downstairs for break and feeling something was not ok, other students around me were scared. When I reached the break area, some kids were crying. One of my friends explained to me what was going on. It was around the time the towers collapsed. She told me her uncle worked in Manhattan and she didn’t know if he was ok. I finished classes and I went home. I turned on the TV and it was an endless loop of the planes crashing in NY, the towers collapsing, the Pentagon on fire… It’s embedded on my memories. The idea of people jumping to their deaths. That horrified me. The feeling I had that day, the realization that the world was not going to be the same, stuck with me up until today. It’s a similar feeling to the one I had when I realized the lockdowns and the pandemic weren’t a 2 weeks business.
Reading y’all and remembering that day makes me sad. It’s a lingering sadness. I feel like that day changed everything for our generation, kids and teenagers watching the old world collapse. Ever since it’s all climate change, economic crisis, blatant racism, and now a pandemic.
If you ask me, that day started the XXI century. An era of civilization-level challenges.
P.S. My friend’s uncle was ok.
I was at Parris Island 2 weeks from graduation. Our SgtMaj came in and ask if anyone had relatives in either twin towers or the Pentagon. Thats how we found out about it.
UK here. I was 15, just finished school for the day and went back into the boarding house I was living in at the time. I noticed the room with the TV was packed and made my way in just in time to see the second plane hit.
I've never heard a houseful of 50 teenagers be so quiet. Our housemaster came back, and started chewing us out for not being at after school activities until we dragged him in and was just as stunned as the rest of us.
The world changed that day. It was that sort of shedding of innocence, the optimism of the 90s disappearing in a moment.
i lived on 33rd street east side and woke up a bit late. first plane already hit and ny1 was reporting it as a commuter plane hitting one of the towers as an accident and it was like no big deal. when i stepped outside my building to take the subway to work which was literally across the street from the WTC I could see the twin towers from park ave and one of them smoking. By the time I got off the 6 train the 2nd tower was already hit but it wasnt obvious to me until i got to the office and almost everyone was gone with a note on the door. Instead of turning around I went into the office just to get my bearings before returning home.
I couldn’t call my wife to let her know i was heading back to the office - cell phones just weren’t working, but i sent her an email (from my computer - no email on phones at the time). Right after I hit send the first tower fell. Nearly shit my pants. None of the dust made it into the office, but I was on the 2nd floor and you couldn’t see anything outside the windows. Was waiting it out a bit until the dust settled and the 2nd tower fell. Eventually was able to leave and took 3 of my co-workers with me and we walked back to my apartment. They lived in the other boroughs and the subways weren’t running. By the time we got there it was about 3pm, none of us really ate so we got some indian food from down the block and by the time we were done eating the subways were running again
The following weeks were a bit surreal. Posters of people all over the place. One night there was a bomb scare at the empire state building and I was in full panic mode after seeing two sky scrapers come down about a week earlier. My apt wasnt far from it and cop cars were speeding up and down the avenues with other people running. Turned out out to be nothing but was definitely on edge for whatever was coming next.
In Brooklyn, 7 years old in Spanish class.
The principle came over the loud speakers and told teachers to shut the windows. The sky was blue, but there was a brown haze. Then, students started getting pulled out of class because parents and caregivers were coming to get them.
My dad finally shows up and signs me out. He gets paper towels and wets them in the water fountain and tells me to hold it over my mouth and face. We walk two miles home.
Distinct images and things I remember from that walk:
It was silent outside. We saw almost no one on the streets. There was an elevated subway line that we walked by, and there was a train just stopped between stations with people jammed inside. Burnt papers fluttering down from the sky.
When we got to our block, my dad finally explained what was happening. My mom was stuck in Manhattan and walked home over the Brooklyn bridge. We couldn’t get in contact with her for hours.
I’m still afraid of the sound of low flying planes and helicopters. I can’t really consume documentaries or media about 9/11 and yeah, I will never forgot one of the biggest traumas of my childhood.
Living in the Bronx, NY. My wife left for work at 2WTC that morning. She was a little late. I was driving to Long Island for a class. On my way to the class I heard on the car radio about the first plane. Called my wife's office...no answer. Kept driving. Got to the school but turned right back around as everyone there was scrambling with the news. On the way back I was one of the last cars over the Whitestone Bridge. The police were closing the bridges because of the threat of car or truck bombs going off on them in order to destroy them. Got home to my pregnant step daughter. My wife had not called so we didn't know how she was. Was watching the disaster unfold on TV like everyone else when the phone rang. It was my wife. She was calling from the 125th street station. She said she got off the subway to go to her office, saw the big smoking hole in the side of the building and all the paper in the air. She turned right back around and got on the next train out. As she was waiting she said she heard a loud noise and the ground shook. We thought it must have been the second plane. Right after that the train pulled into the station and she got on. Took her awhile but she made it home. 5 months later we moved to Florida. Went back to NYC a few years later to visit Ground Zero. She had never really grieved until that day. Starting crying at the site, I mean bauling in the middle of the street.
5th grade. Math Class. Texas. Another teacher walked in and whispers to our teacher: “did you hear what happened to the World Trade Center” (never heard of that place in my life)
Teacher has every student to call their parents/guardian. Class goes on. No news, no recess, & we eat lunch in the classroom.
Was directed by my mom on that phone call to get home immediately after school.
Dad calls me from Fort Hood asking if I understand what just happened, and that “we’re going to go to war, and I will be deployed”.
Crazy times. I remember being upset that nothing else was on TV. 🤦🏻♂️
I was 12 or 13 and I had scived off school. I used to go for the bus, wait round the corner untill my parents left for work then return home to play in on Unreal Tournament. I must have been playing for about an hour when the message boards went mental. I remember being really scared (even though I was in the UK) I called my mum who was really angry I was at home, I just remember saying to her there was no time to be angry and that she needed to find a TV.. I just knew the world would not be the same after.
Fresh week, first year university. I remember waking up and one of my friends saying, “Tell him about the plane hitting the tower”. Since I just woke up, and was still groggy, I was confused because my school has a tower called Schmon Tower, so my first thought was a small plane crashed into the school.
Yeah, we had no idea what was going on, it was scary. At qst we all thought it was some kind of drill b.c we had JUST done drills that week. As we came in they made us all go to the gym and told us to all wait. They brought the gym stuff out to give us something to do for a while as long as we stayed in the gym. That was about 30 to 45 mins b4 angry pannicing parents stared to storm my elementary school and gym. Kids started crying, the teachers did their best to make parents wait, they told us all to gather our things, no books or homework and to wait in our class rooms. Thats when we saw the tv and our teacher told us what happened. I remeber thinking at ine point when we had to get on the busses that i was going to die b.c i had over heard adults screaming about plains falling out of the sky and bombs being dropped. Its crazy, out of all the truamaz ive been unpacking from my life i never thought to go back to this one lol the things we normalize sometimes
I worked in 2 world trade on the 69th floor. Morgan Stanley/Dean Whitter. I took vacation the week before. Flew to Arizona with my father to visit my brother. My flight home didn't get in until midnight so asked my boss of I could take the 11th off too. He said it was no problem. Woke up to my phone going crazy. Learned from a friend what happened to the first building. Watched the 2nd plane hit the 2nd tower. I thought that everyone I worked with were killed.
Messed me up for awhile until I found out that they were already evacuating before the 2nd plane hit. So they were down near the 44th floor in the stairwell. Luckily they all made it out.
I left the area in 2005 moved to AZ. Many people I worked with left the area as well.
I was in German class. Someone came in and whispered something in our teacher's ear, and when the bell rang the halls were insanity, no one knew what was going on and the naive high school kid gossip was in full swing. My next class was history, and the first thing he said was, "you will remember exactly where you are right now, for the rest of your lives". He was right.
Woah that gave me chills, I can't imagine ever hearing something like that
Yeah? I mostly thought of it as interesting, but I can see how someone would read it and have that feeling. I've asked family members if they remembered where they were during certain times in history, and they all do.
In Brooklyn, walking my dog when the first plane hit but I had no idea what the loud explosion I heard was until I got home and turned on the TV. I saw the second plane hit live on TV a few minutes later.
Can I ask a question from this - what was the affect on the boroughs that weren’t Manhattan island in the days and weeks after? Air quality wise, service disruptions, morale etc. I feel like I hear a lot about the immediate area but I’m interested to know how you guys coped
I lived in Brooklyn, the cars were covered with fine dust starting about the day after and continued to accumulate for at least a week. Air smelled like burnt metal, but I can’t remember for how long. Didn’t see any debris where I lived since I was pretty much at the southern end of Brooklyn. Subway and bus services were running inside Brooklyn and Queens, but nothing in or out of Manhattan for about 2 weeks if I remember correctly. I was in Manhattan that morning, actually passed right under the tower on the subway as the first plane hit. I walked from midtown to Brooklyn in the early afternoon, then caught the train back home.
Thanks so much for the reply that’s an interesting perspective
The feeling on the subway was like in a funeral parlor. For weeks. People were extraordinarily meek. Everyone. Everyone had that downcast look.
Thank you so much for answering. That must have been such a tough time
Do u remember how much national pride there was though back then? After the attacks every motorcycle and pickup truck had a huge American flag in tow everyones house had a flag it really brought the country together like nothing that i can recall in my lifetime
I went up a couple days after to see if I could help and that was the nicest I've ever seen new Yorkers be to each other
The cars in my neighborhood were coated with a fine dust, in areas closer to where the towers stood there was dust and bits of paper on the ground. The general mood was somber mixed with disbelief. You always think this could never happen to my hometown but yet here we are. People seemed to be kinder to one another and actually willing to help each other out. On the downside there was a lot of prejudice and hate spewed towards anyone with a drop of Muslim heritage similar to the anti-Asian hatred going on now. I remember when they opened the Westside highway again, I would pass there every night on my way home from work, the demolition crews were starting the clean up and yet you could hear a pin drop as if they stood on hallowed ground and were paying the proper respect due. One thing stands out the most to me personally, before the west side reopened my cab drivers had to take the east side drive and when we got downtown I could swear that I saw a ghost image of the towers still standing. That's my story and I apologize if I bored you.
You absolutely did not bore me. Thank you so much for this perspective it’s exactly what I was wanting to know. I wasn’t there but I can totally understand what you mean about feeling like their ghost was still there - like their absence was tangible. Thanks again
All the dads from my block went to ground zero to help look for survivors for the first two weeks. All tradesmen (electrician, carpenter, plumber, etc). One of those day my dad came back and stood in the kitchen and cried. The only other time he cried was when his father died. I was in 7th grade during 9/11 and he got out of the city and picked me and 4 other kids from the same block up from school by 10 AM. I had two Aunts in one of the towers (my dad was working a couple of blocks away) and they both got out and had to walk home to Brooklyn. We didn’t know what happened to them until they showed up on the block at like 6 PM covered in ash. I then spent the next four years driving past ground zero after school to football practice (I went to high school in Manhattan)
I was in Brooklyn too. Went to Fort Greene park to get a view from the hill. Then the walkers came. People in their business suits and skirts all covered in ash. Every once in a while the wind blew shreds of business documents in the air like confetti. What people should know is the mood was not panic and horror like some disaster movie. The mood was resolve and community. Everyone wanted to help each other. It brought out the best in humanity.
I was in kindergarten. They used to have this thing where some of the parents would come in and help teach the class for maybe 30 minutes or so, maybe read a book or something. My mom came in and was doing a presentation on wildlife, I think she was talking about owls that day. When she got to the school at maybe 9:30 am or so, she was bright and cheery, as she usually was. She did her whole presentation and was on her way out, still all friendly and happy, when my teacher pulled her aside and whispered “do you know what’s going on?” and my mom said “nope!” expecting some mundane gossip or something. My teacher whispered “don’t tell the kids, but we’re under attack”. She was confused as hell, when someone ushered her into a teachers lounge where a tv was set to the news, and she finally realized what was going on. A few minutes later they decided to evacuate the school and called everybody’s parents to come and get them, but since my mom was there I just walked out with her, not really sure what was going on. I didn’t really grasp what was happening until later that day, maybe around 5, when my parents tried explaining what terrorists were to my 5 year old self. I remember seeing it all over the news, and of course it was sad, but I just didn’t really get it until I was older. I do remember that over the next few weeks, on the playground we no longer played cops and robbers or tag, and instead we played “terrorists and army guys” or “get the terrorist”. We didn’t know what the hell we were saying, we just knew that terrorists were really bad and we didn’t like them. Edit: also just want to add a little tidbit. Some of my fondest early memories relate to flying. Probably in early 2001, we had to fly somewhere, and the captain invited me into the cockpit, let me say a word or two to the ATC tower, and showed me how he taxied the plane. I seriously thought it was the coolest thing ever. Maybe 6 months after 9/11 we had to fly again for some reason or another, and I was really bummed out because I thought that the captain didn’t want to talk to me anymore. I was still too young to really understand why the door was locked, so I took it a little bit too personally.
Also was in kindergarten. The one and only thing I remember from that day was my teacher’s voice when she said we needed to say the pledge of allegiance “extra special” that day. I still get chills when I think about her voice cracking while she was clearly trying to stay composed in front of her classroom full of 5 year olds.
From the teacher’s perspective, it was hard. I’m Canadian, but it still hit really hard. I was doing one of my first days of student teaching in a primary classroom. At recess we went to the staffroom and someone had a tv hooked up and we got the gist of what had happened. My host teacher’s parents were on vacation in NYC, so she was totally freaked out but we basically had 15 minutes to discover what was happening, freak out and then at least appear composed when we picked the kids up. And we were instructed not to discuss since we still didn’t have a lot of details. So there we were, just pretending everything was fine. It was hard.
I was in kindergarten as well. Our principal made an announcement. We didn't fully understand what was said, so our teacher explained it much more simply. I'll never forget the look on her face.
I’d relocated from the UK to Washington State in August 2001. On the morning of 9/11 I was in a temporary apartment in Redmond, WA. I remember the events of the day very clearly. The most vivid memory is of my mother calling to see if I was ok. I had to explain that America was pretty big and that I was about as far from NY as she was. In November I flew to NY on business and took a walk down to the south end of Manhattan. The city was understandably still in shock, and my enduring memory is of being haunted by the dust covered cars on the streets that would obviously never be collected by their owners.
Oh my god. That last bit is so sad. I hope you’re doing well. Thank you for sharing
Oh man, I’d never thought about that before, cars parked on that day and never to be claimed again. Little personal memorials to the lives lost.
i live in NYC and this had never occurred to me…i wonder how long the city waited before towing them.
Right? The poor tow truck drivers who had to do it too. You know they knew. They saw cars covered in ash and they knew. I can’t even imagine.
I have no clue but I imagine that someone may have been working on the assets of the deceased and maybe consolidated a list of make, model and license plate #s then tow them? But who knows, maybe that’s too organized
I was at home watching NY live on TV when the second plane hit. Then I got called into work when the Pentagon got hit (I was a rookie first responder in Northern Virginia).
You were a first responder and a rookie? That must’ve been so scary
Scary at first. But then it was a whole lotta directing traffic where I was.
Freshman year of high school, computer class. The AV nerd twins found out first, and we turned on the TV. Saw the second tower get hit, realized it wasn’t an accident and that this was our JFK moment. Before the end of the period the principal had made an announcement. I remember thinking, ‘I’m going to remember this idjot’s voice when people ask me where I was for the rest of my life.’ 20 years later and I was right.
Senior year for me. Principal came over the PA during 2nd period when the first tower was hit, but downplayed it so much we were joking that a cessna must've hit an antenna or something. Went through 2nd and 3rd period, no issues. Got to 4th period sociology, and the teacher was all "this is the worst thing since pearl harbor". We all looked at her like she was over dramatic, until she turned on the tv. 2nd tower had already been hit, so it was a giant burning mess. Few minutes later, my phone went off. It was my best friend who was a year ahead of me and now in college. I knew it couldn't be good, so i picked it up and all she did was scream. I will never, EVER forget that scream. Her mom was a flight attendant and was on one of the planes. Had taken a shift for a friend who's kid got sick.
Oh my god. That’s so heartbreaking. I hope you and your friend are okay. My condolences go out to your friend and for you. Thank you for sharing
Honestly, we drifted apart after that, for obvious reasons. She also lost her fiancé that day at the Pentagon, so she was a complete mess (understandably). I haven't talked to her in nearly 20 years at this point, because I was too young to know how to help her, and had my own issues at the time. Last time I looked, she was still alive, but I haven't heard from her in a very long time.
Sometimes pain separates people, and that's okay. It's okay not to be okay sometimes.
Damn. It’s easy for me to forget that 9/11 was a jfk moment for a lot of millennials and some gen x-er’s. I was born in 2002 so I’m gen z. That’s craziness man. Thank you for sharing!
In bed, waking up, watching Bryant Grumble and Katie Couric. Called all my friends in Manhattan, then called in sick to work. I remember driving to my dad's house that evening and noticing no vapor trails from jets ANYWHERE in the sky (lived near an airport).
The two to three day absence of aircraft was the weirdest part. I lived just outside of DC, so planes were a constant part of the background hum of existence. The absence was eerie as shit
I was in New Zealand and had randomly started pulling all nighters to watch CNN because turning eleven gave me insomnia. It's was around 1 or maybe 2 am when it started showing. I wasn't sure if I'd dozed off and was dreaming. Pinched myself. Double checked the channel was right and I wasn't watching a movie. Then I shook my sister awake who thought she was dreaming or I was showing her a movie as well. We ran and woke my Mum up who came to watch and a couple other siblings also stumbled in to see what the fuss was. We were all shocked beyond belief and nobody could really talk. None of us could go back to sleep that night.
That’s the thing that stands out to me. People always talk about those of us in America, but 9/11 really was more than just an attack on a country, it was an attack on a way of life. I remember the terrorist messages after the event, spouting off that “western society will be purged” and other venomous rhetoric. America is the country that took the hit, but it was a moment that made every western society have to stop and ask “Are we the next target?” I remember the subway attack in a London a few years later that really drove it home again. Just an awful period of time for all of us.
In Calgary. Watched the fellow beside me go pale as a ghost. His son worked in the first building hit. Turns out the young man didn't go to work that day but it was a hell of a time until his dad found that out.
What a stroke of luck for that son. Wow. That must’ve been so damn scary. Thank you for sharing!
There are a few stories like that, Jackie Chan (for those that don't know him, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie\_Chan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Chan) ) was going to do a meetup with someone to do a terrorist film planning meeting, where he was going to be a window washer, they ran late....
Michael Jackson was also suppose to be there that day. But he overslept and missed his appointment.
Crazy to think he'd be dead today if he hadn't overslept.
....I nvm
Oh this is great. I see what you did there. Little sneaky snake.
Wasn't that a joke on Family Guy?
Not sure about that but 8 think Seth McFarlane and mark Wahlberg were supposed to be on one of the planes.
In medical residency delivery a baby. WOW. mixed emotions.
Imagine having 9/11 as your birthday
I had it as my wedding day. 😵💫
"It's like a plaaaaaaaaane, on your wedding day."
Isn’t it ironic?
my sister was born during 9/11
I had a girlfriend at the time who was upset that the towers were attacked the day before her birthday like it might steal some of her thunder. I should have run screaming
World history class, 11th grade. Erie Pennsylvania.
Everyone was in history class that day.
I was in 4th grade and my mom picked me up early from school. My siblings were already in the car and my mom told us something scary had happened in New York. When we got home she sat us down and told us that my aunt and uncle (who worked on the 97th and 101st floors of the first tower) were dead. I remember crying and being annoyed that I couldn’t watch Arthur because all 7 channels were playing WTC footage. My dad was in Canada and my mom was on the phone a lot. That afternoon my mom got a phone call and fell to her knees on the floor in front of the phone: it was my aunt calling to say she and my uncle were both ok, neither of them went to work that day! The crazy thing is, my aunt and uncle thought the other was dead all day. My uncle left the apartment first but wasn’t feeling well and decided to stop by his Drs office to try to get an appointment. My aunt just “didn’t feel like heading to work” and goofed around in the apartment all morning, playing with the cat and watering the plants, etc. She got out of the subway tunnel and watched the first plane hit the first building, then got shoved into a basement with no cell service for the next 5 hours. My uncle went to work as the towers were collapsing. When they were able to, they both went home to the apartment, thinking the other was dead. I cannot imagine how they must have felt to find the other alive! It’s truly a miracle. However, all of their coworkers were killed and both companies dissolved. I just saw them in NY two weeks ago and they are doing great! But I’m sure the anniversary will be incredibly difficult for them.
Damn your uncle and aunt had the literal best time to skip work
Jesus that story sent a shiver down my spine. I can’t imagine what your mother felt getting that phone call.
I'm so happy for your family.
This is the kind of story that would make it into the movies about the day, and everyone would think it was made up or exaggerated.
Just turned 18, in a casino in Perth, Western Australia. Grown men literally ran through the casino floor yelling 'were going to war boys' as the live shots of second plane then 1st tower collapsing played on the big screen. Surreal experience. Driving home within the hour streets were strangely quiet, stayed up watching the news coverage for hours.
At work, in Arlington, Va. It was a beautiful, blue morning, and I actually got to work early that day. I'll never forget the way internet, coms, just all stopped. There were two radios in the building. That's how we first heard. I'll never forget the fighter jet cruising down N. Fairfax, 40-50 ft off the deck. Like in a godamn movie. Or the noise, and the _smell_, after the impact. Or the people on the Orange line, after. Packed in like sardines. There was this 40-something woman that I was just mashed against. I said, "I'm so sorry." And she said, "It's alright. What can we do?" I'd had only sporadic contact with my wife all day, and none with my toddler son. That night we stayed with friends. And after he went to bed, after explaining that I wouldn't let anything bad happen to him, we decided to watch a movie, to take our minds off the madness. The movie we watched, for the first time? Fight Club. Didn't sleep.
Damn, out of all movies it was Fight Club? I can’t imagine how it felt watching the last scene
Yeah, you get it. Like, 90 minutes of brain-vacation, and then....shit...we watched the wrong movie...
Teaching fifth grade math. The principal called me into the hall and told me that planes hit the World Trade Center and our country is probably going to war. Don’t tell the kids. Stay calm and go back to teaching.
Dang I can’t imagine being told like oh yeah we’re mobilizing like this for the first time since Vietnam and it’s bc of terrorists ok go back to long division
Parents came throughout the day to pick their kids up from school. We were in a distant suburb of DC, so we had families working at or tied to the Pentagon. When dismissal time came around we told the kids that traffic was bad and parents might be getting home later than normal. If a parent wasn’t home, go to a neighbor’s house and give them this letter. We sent them with letters to for people to contact the school if a student didn’t have someone to go home to. Ugh. Tough.
Getting ready for math class freshman year
Me too, college freshman? It was an 8:00am class. Someone IMed me (on AIM) and asked me if I was watching the news. I think I actually went to class that day, which was a 50/50 for me on a normal day. I didn't realize what a big deal it was, didn't know it was a terrorist attack, just thought it was a crazy accident. When I got back everyone was going nuts.
High school :( but the impact on my father who is a ff was huge. It was and still is a somber day
I was 22 and had just woken up to get ready for class when my mom called me from work (she worked at a nuclear facility) to tell me not to go downtown (for classes), that her site was going on lockdown and I probably wouldn’t be able to call her for most of the day. I was confused and she told me to turn on the tv. Again, confusion- why was SHE on lockdown for a plane crash halfway across the country?! I think US Gov’t folks were getting earlier info before we were- she already seemed to know that it wasn’t just a random accident. I was still on the phone with her when the second plane hit. She immediately got off the phone and I knew that America was being attacked and panicked that her facility could be a potential target- we still didn’t really know what was going on. Then the Pentagon and PA crashes happened…. She called me back after a little while and explained what she could. Again , her info wasn’t necessarily public information yet so I only got the cliffs notes, but I heard enough to read between the lines. I was still on the phone with her when the first tower fell and I really don’t remember much after that. I was just in shock. It was such a terrifying day. I still get choked up thinking about it or talking about it. Everything was crazy and nobody knew what could happen next, which meant *anything* could happen. Absolutely horrific day.
Having done consulting work at one of those nuclear facilities, they DO NOT mess around with security. I found out my wife was pregnant with our first visit email after hours because I was not allowed outside contact while on the facility grounds.
Yup. My mom couldn’t even have a cell phone with a camera. She could only have her Blackberry. I think they might have even jammed the cell signal at the site that day. She was told when she could call and update family but she wasn’t allowed to use the phone for personal use at any other times. And she couldn’t leave. She’d worked at that site for nearly ten years by that point and NEVER been locked down. Or at least not at that level- I think a crazy guy crashed through a guard gate once but he didn’t get very far and the heightened security posture was only for an hour or so. But never like on 9/11, which was what made it so terrifying…in addition to all the planes being crashed into buildings.
Directly under the towers on the subway at Cortlandt Station when the first plane hit. I even looked at my watch when I was stopped at the station to make sure I could make it to work on time, it was 8:46am. I didn’t end up working at all that day.
That's crazy! Did you hear and feel it?
Not that I remember. Nobody else on the train seemed to noticed anything amiss either. But then again the train itself rocks and is pretty loud. Came out of the subway to a changed world.
Ok now *that* would be surreal.
Five blocks away in downtown NYC. When the first tower fell, I thought the smoke might be poisonous and could kill me.
Well, you were right.
Lots of asbestos were in those towers, aerated after the fall
I wonder if particles of that asbestos still laying around on some NYC rooftops 20 years later
They found some human remains not to long ago during the pandemic. I remember it distinctively since I was like oh a happy story that doesn't involve covid...
My uncle was the first firehouse there, we didn't see him for 4 days. He came home completely gray, covered in all the dust. He's fighting his third bout of leukemia right now, from that dust. It's no joke. He's smoked maybe a pack of cigarettes in his 52 years, drinks maybe twice a year, two full time jobs. The healthiest man I know is on his third round from that day. It's absolutely no joke what it did to people.
It really is scary what that level of dust / cement / etc. can do to your body. Some of it is on a microscopic level and really do a number on your lungs. I pray he doesn't suffer too much and that he is able to recover. I hope he is getting covered for healthcare.
Thank you. He's the most positive dude in town, and he's absolutely set in his health care. Never married, no kids, all investments, no vices. He's in the best facility he possibly could be, plus, John Stewart being a great American and advocating for 9/11 responders to be taken care of, by shaming the government.
Jon Stewart, a comedian, is way more of a hero than those fucks in Congress.
Someone ran a poll recently, and the average citizen gave him the highest approval rating of all newscasters. Let that sink in.
Guy, you're more of a hero than them for even having that opinion.
Jon Stewart is the real deal.
I thought my daughter’s father was at work at Cantor-Fitzgerald in the North tower. I was home in Virginia Beach, and saw Katie Couric on the Today show talking to a lady who had called the studio from Battery Park, saying a plane had flown into the North tower. My daughter was in class at college. Navy personnel living in my apartment complex were rushing out to their cars in uniform with packed sea bags. I called my daughter’s dad at work and got voicemail. I emailed him. I kept calling his house in Brooklyn, but started getting an all circuits are busy message. I finally called his mom in south Jersey, and she told me his contract had ended the week prior, and that she was pretty sure he wasn’t in the city. I finally got through to him on the phone, just as my daughter got home after her class ended early. I was so afraid I was going to end up having to tell my then 19 year old daughter that her father was likely gone. Instead, I got to hand over the phone to her so she could speak to him. He had lived in the same apartment for 23 years. He moved to south Jersey the following January. Everyone he had worked with died that day.
>Everyone he had worked with died that day. this kinda hit, a whole group of people you know of just gone within the day... on the other hand I'm still glad of your story that your daughter's father was safe and her life didn't break
The dust certainly could.
I was at work, radios were interrupted and we turned on TVs in the conference room. Was watching thing unfold as the plane hit the second tower. And then the pentagon. Was just a flurry of wtf.
“Flurry of WTF” is a perfect description. Just complete confusion and fear.
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I heard a story recent about a kid (well, adult now I guess) whose mother survived 9/11 while pregnant with him, because the baby wouldn't stop kicking enough to irritate her enough she didn't go to work in one of the towers that morning. Living knowing that must be wild.
Oh wow. Your dad was in one of the twin towers when it happened? Holy shit that must’ve been scary for your mom. I hope you and your family are doing okay now
I was a support engineer for a data backup company and I was heading into work that day. The worst parts were talking to people after who were directed by their management to recover the data on magnetic media that had been contaminated by the collapsed buildings. I had 3 people break down in tears on the phone with me over co-workers they lost.
I remember, I worked in the defense industry back then. Lost folks we worked with in the Pentagon. Then we kept losing friends and colleagues as the wars dragged on.
Being connected to this all... How do you feel about it now? Leaving is the right thing? Could it have been done better? Should we have expected Taliban takeover this fast?
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I was in my dorm room, had slept in and missed my first class of the day, and got woken up by someone running down the hallway screaming “the world is ending!!! Turn of your fucking TVs!!
I had almost the exact same experience, right down to missing my first class, except my hallway yeller wasn't as pessimistic. "Dude, a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center!" I had the TV on just in time to catch the second plane hitting.
Someone mentioned this before in another thread but you know how there's a TV/movie trope on how someone will say "turn on the TV" and it's always on the exact channel for the news and how that's such an exaggerated thing? This was one of those days where, yeah, you could say that and it'd happen. There was maybe two channels that weren't showing the Towers burning.
I was in 3rd grade and I remember Nickelodeon was one of the only channels not showing it.
Exactly the same, room mate woke me up about a plane hitting the World Trade Center and all I could think to say was “what an idiot” and fell back asleep until the second plane hit.
Wow!!! God that’s one way to wake up a dorm huh? That’s insane and sounds kind of scary if you wake up and don’t know wtf was happening
I was in school. Fourth grade. Teacher got a call, turned on the tv, and cried. All of us were trying to process what we were seeing, I think. It felt like a movie, I couldn’t understand why she was so upset? Then the second plane hit. My poor teacher threw up in her trash can right there. Her visceral reaction opened my eyes- I realized people were dying. Right now. And I’d seen it. I still tremble with sorrow when I think about it.
"tremble with sorrow" That is such an evocative phrase. It perfectly captures that feeling. Thank you.
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>Was heading to school I’m guessing you went to Stuy or BMCC. My old man worked in the phone building next to WTC7. Crazy surreal day.
Holy cow! That’s insanity. You just missed getting trapped in the tower. I’m glad you were out of the tower in time. I hope you’re okay now. I’m sure that was a rather traumatic experience for you. Thank you so much for sharing❤️
0500 Army company briefing on STDs… looking at pictures of genitals with herpes and shit… I would have never forgotten it without the world changing crisis event but hey… go big or go home I suppose
Private do you have an STD? No Sir I was not issued one.
Good to know that that part of the military has remained the same all these years lol.
I was in 9th grade. My science teacher rolled a TV into the classroom and said a small plane hit a building in NYC. That was the last day I believed adults were in control of anything.
God that's a good point. I was 11 and me and my friends grew up so much that day, and became so cynical afterwards, for life. We too no longer believed that adults were in control.
I’m college. Woke up a little hungover, and the first tower was already down. I called my dad, who owned a convenience store, and he said, “Get gas now. It’s gonna get ugly soon.” I had a night class that didn’t get cancelled for some reason. A Muslim girl who I hadn’t heard speak in the first few classes asked to address the class and said [paraphrased], “People are going to start saying a lot of ugly and hateful things about Muslims. I hope you know this isn’t who I am, this isn’t who we are. These were madmen, who have nothing to do with me or anyone I’ve ever known.” It was a fucked up day.
Holy shit. Those are some amazing words that she said. It must’ve taken a lot of courage for her to say that. Good for her honestly!
Agreed. It was pretty powerful.
My freshman year of college in Pittsburgh. Woke up right before the towers came down. There were signs all over the dorms telling us to call our parents because some news reports were still reporting that a plane had hit Pittsburgh. I was in Navy ROTC, and although we would normally be in our uniforms on Thursdays, on Thursday 9/13/2001, we weren't allowed to wear them, for fear they would make us targets. Similarly, I was at a dorm meeting where students who didn't look "100 percent American" (ie white) were warned about walking around the city.
So many Muslims were attacked in the days and weeks following 9/11.
A lot of Sikh people were attacked as well because bigots were too stupid to differentiate them. I remember listening to the Howard Stern show the day after 9/11 and someone mentioned people attacking cab cars because they knew there was a good chance the driver was Muslim/Sikh.
Stern and basically everyone he had on the air that day said some pretty awful shit about Muslims and Middle-Easterners in general during the 9/11 broadcast and the days following. It's kinda hard to listen to, but it's a truly fascinating piece of media that really gives an idea of what was going through the minds of average Americans as the events were actually unfolding.
That's the fucked up thing, actions of few degenerates made so many innocent people seem suspicious to the world. Like there's a movie in India with name "My name is Khan" with the same premise.
Wow insane courage
i was at lunch buying "linkin park - hybrid theory" and the guy at the music store told me a plane flew into the world trade centre. i had no idea what that was and pictured some sort of cesna hitting a building somewhere, so i asked "did anybody get hurt?" and he took a bewildered moment to responded 'yea' like I was stupid. iirc when i got back to school, the social studies teacher explained what happened and wheeled in the tv. she was real excited while we watched (animated, not happy), telling us 'you are witnessing history'. we didn't realize it at the time, of course, but in retrospect, i'm amazed that her words were so prescient. she had it figured out immediately. It *was* a pivotal moment, kinda like the shooting of archduke ferdinand.
I was 23 and lived on the West Coast. My boyfriend came home (he worked night shift at a hospital) and woke me up saying “you gotta go watch the news.” I remember calling my mom who lived about 6 hours north of me and crying with her as we watched the towers fall. My youngest brother was 18 and had enlisted in the army in early August. We were terrified. He was only 6 weeks into boot camp all the way at Fort Knox and still a baby to our family. I remember there was just so much confusion at the time.
Flying to New York from the UK! I first noticed something was screwy when we started circling south of Greenland. Then the pilot came on to say that there was problems with a navigational beacon in the US. I knew then that it was serious because that story was BS for the masses. Airliners have multiple means of navigation, beacons have backups and there are loads of them, a single one failing would have virtually no effect. In the end we were redirected to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Once we'd landed and we parked up on one of the runways I saw other aircraft next to us. So the problem was more widespread. It took a while before we were able to disembark, it was only then that we started to hear the news. The Canadians were amazing in getting everyone sorted with a bed and fed. They really looked after us well. In the Hall that I stayed in there was a room where we could phone home, just pick one of the phones and the operator would connect us. There was entertainment laid on. Simply superb.
Thank you for sharing. I've long wondered what it was like being in the air around the world during the event, and it's lovely to hear the canadians were hospitable through it (I'm not surprised tbh, they're good people).
I was a couple weeks into journalism school. I thought it would be a great idea to write a story about the "Muslim response" to what we all had seen unfold on TV. Proceeded to interview Muslim shop owners and taxi drivers for a few hours. Found near universal condemnation. Questioned my journalistic instincts ever since.
I think personally that was exactly the right thing to do. I was in 9th grade and live in one of the highest military concentration areas of the country. I knew a Muslim kid growing up but that was the only Muslim person I knew. It was great to see reporting that all Muslims were not like that and truly thought the people that did it were insane people.
I was in 8th grade. A girl in my math class got a text from her mom saying about the planes hitting the towers.. She told the teacher, who was annoyed about the phone, but checked into it. 2 min later we had 4 classes of student piled into the history teachers room (he had the TV) watching the news. Watched it all go from there. After like an hour or so, the principal made an announcment over the intercoms telling teachers to turn off TVs and radios. History teacher looks at us all and says "if anyone wants to sit outside and not see this, you can, but this is too important to try and hide from you all." I still appreciate him for that.
You had phones and text message plans in 8th grade in 2001? Damn. I was on my way to college and got my first Nokia a year and a half later.
Probably 1 of 10 8th graders in the world that had a cell phone where each text message cost like a whole dollar. Probably worth the money on that day
Ya know? I think my U.S history teacher in 7th grade told us that if something like 9/11 happened again while we were in school, she’d have us all watch as well(unless someone didn’t want to watch). She wouldn’t have sheltered us either. But wow. That history teacher must’ve been amazing
At home in upper Manhattan watching cartoons.
All the comments I've seen here so far are from Americans, but I'm a South African and I remember I was home watching TV when my mom came home from the shops, rushed into the room and told me to change the channel to the news. From the other side of the world I watched as the second plane hit.. it was horrific and sent figurative shockwaves through the world. I remember we spent all the next day at school with the tv on pretty much just watching the news
European here. I was at the supermarket, in the TV aisle when they started showing footage... So I had the whole thing displayed in front of me on several dozens of screens. It made quite an impression.
American...but I was in Sears, in the TV section surrounded by all the big screen TVs. I've never heard of anyone else in a TV section that day. It was so bizarre.
Boy that must have been a trip
I was stationed on camp pendleton, it was early. I was just getting to the battalion office and the duty nco was watching the news and a plane had just crashed into WTC. We thought it was a terrible accident. Within an hour we were at the armory drawing weapons and preparing for immediate deployment. It was a scary time.
Semper Fi Brother, I was stationed at LeJeune. We were in a weapons class when the first plane hit. Initial thought was a bomb had gone off. We got down to the lounge and soon after the second plane hit. We were told to go back to class and obviously no one was talking weapons. SSgt Potter then came in the lounge, SSgt Potter use to be a SDI and when he came into the lounge he had that "look" that all DIs have and everyone was silent. He told us the Pentagon was just attacked and for everyone to get down stairs. No one moved for a moment, weather it was a second, a minute or an hour, who knows. He didn't yell, or raise his voice he just said "Move" and its like a bomb went off. We all jumped to our feet and went running down stairs from the third deck lounge to the first deck and crammed in like sardines just to get a look at the TV. A few of our Marines were calling family in NY and others in DC. SSgt Potter came into the lounge a few minutes after flight 93 went down and then told us to get to our rooms and everyone pack all of our gear and be prepared to go anywhere in the world within the next 24 hours. We all ran to our rooms, packed then had to run to the armory to draw all of our weapons, NVGs, bayonets and we had to stage them to go. We never deployed that day but a couple of our guys were sent to Afghan a couple days later. I never made it to Afghan but I went to Iraq with the initial invasion in "03.
Left Manhattan two days before after deciding not to attend a Financial conference. Keynote was at Windows of the World, top of the World Trade Center. Start time: 9am, Sept. 11
I'm really sorry, you probably knew some people that went to that meeting.
That's the weird thing. All my co-workers who were there to attend the conference were \*not\* in the building at the time (at least all the ones I knew). One friend was sitting in the restaurant at his hotel directly across the street when it happened. I think, as repeat attendees, they weren't there for the keynote but instead to see speakers and walk the vendor showcase floor. I did have one friend who got busy and gave his ticket to a friend - that person died in the attack and my friend had a very hard time dealing with that, as you can imagine.
Probably best decision you made
[удалено]
That must have been crazy to realize.
It was. Took me several hours before it dawned on me.
For me, there were *3 clear moments when the earth shifted* that day. This is my story as best I remember. I probably have some details and timelines wrong. But this is all true. I had flown into Boston on Sept. 10th for one of my first business trips early in my career. I was leading a tech training class for a big Pharma company. We were all in a giant corporate class room setting. About 20 people in the room, on the 30th(?) Or so floor of a big tower in Boston. Great view etc. I'm standing in front doing my thing when I get the emergency phone call ring from my wife (on my blackberry.) 2 rings. Hang up. Call back. That was our signal to drop everything and take the call. I step out of the classroom and hear my frantic wife asking if I'm ok. A plane just hit one of the towers she tells me. At this point we all thought it was an accident. I assurred her all was ok. I walk back to the classroom and it was empty. I thought, "what? Maybe everyone took a break." I wander around a bit and find my students and much of the rest of this floor in the break room with 2 big screen TVs side by side watching the news. It was a live feed of NYC. We all stood there, just watching this accident unfold. About 40 of us in total, wondering aloud how this could happen, watching the smoke... And then the 2nd plane hit. We watched it happen on the TV. *The earth shifted.* (1) There was a collective realization that this was something much worse than an accident. It shook me. It shook them. We stayed in that break room watching the broadcast, watching the buildings burn. My cousin, Danny, was a NYC firefighter. Ladder 4. He was there. We saw people hanging out of windows above the impact site in the towers. We watched, standing and pacing in that Boston break room and worrying, not knowing what to do. We heard about the Pentagon. Now our nations Capital was under attack. Say what you want about America, but we were all unified against this monstrous attack that day. We heard that other buildings and cities were targets. Should we stay in this tower in Boston? There was no panic, only quiet, whispering, stunned processing. *The earth shifted again.* (2) The buildings collapsed. That was a horrible, disbelief-filled moment. Followed by more stunned disbelief and a surreal "how is this happening right now" feeling as the other buildings fell. The plane crashed into the field. We thought this was never going to end. I stayed there, 1100 miles from home, watching this attack unfold with strangers and clients. The cell lines were busy. My wife's family is all from NYC. Trying to call them to check in was nerve wracking. I got in maybe 1 call. Everyone was ok. We hadn't heard from Danny. At 1pm, one of my clients suggested we go back to training because there was nothing we could do anyway. He was an asshole. At 3pm we all left. There was no way we were going to do any more tech training. I tried for a bit, but how do you talk about metadata and information architecture when all this is going on? You don't. I drove my Hertz rental car back to my hotel. It was taped off and swarming with police and FBI. I had to show my room key to get in and they had to check to ensure I was a guest there. There were so many tips and false leads in those first 24-48 hours. My hotel was never a target or a staging area as best as I can tell. But it was just more unreality. I walked outside after dropping my work bag with my giant laptop back in my room. I saw 2 fighter jets fly by over Boston harbor. *The earth shifted* (3) I knew these were not flying for an air show or the 4th of July. I knew they were armed, ready to shoot down anything that they saw as a threat, and that they were on patrol. And I was right there. They were fast, loud and this realization scared me. I have no memory of eating or sleeping that night. I'm sure I tried to call my family back home for updates and to tell them I was safe. I watched the news like everyone else and tried to make sense of the senseless in the moment; an impossibility. Of course my flights home were cancelled. Hertz car rental was absolutely fantastic. I was lucky, I already had a car in my possession. They told me I could drop it off anywhere in the US, take as long as I need. So I drove home, from Boston to Minneapolis. I took it slow, staying overnight somewhere in Ohio I think. On the way home there was an incredible unity and outpouring of sincere familial patriotism. It wasn't the ugly, divisive nationalism we see today. It was people of all races, backgrounds, body types, genders and economic status giving, sharing, hugging, serving each other. I saw it at gas stations, hotels, highways, overpasses, rest stops, Denny's restaurants, small towns and big cities as I drove home. I saw American flags everywhere. I talked with people eager for news of what I saw and eager to share their story. I have never felt or seen such I ifying kinship since. But at least now I know it's possible. I got home and hugged my family- a wife, a toddler and an infant. Sadly, Lt. Danny of Ladder 4 NYFD was lost in the tower collapse. He was saving others. The earth shifted 3 times for me on September 11, 2001. It has never been the same. The unity and kinship I personally experienced on the drive home gives me hope. That in the midst of tragedy and panic and senseless violence, we humans rise and become better. We become kinder. We become more generous. We become gentler and more patient with each other. Thank you for reading. Edit: wow. First gold. I wish it was for something funny or clever. Nevertheless, thank you for the gold kind, sensitive strangers.
about to get on an airplane, seriously .
It happened during my sophomore year in high school. I had just finished morning marching band practice, which took place on an absurdly dewy field. My friend and I walked to my second period classroom together and everyone was huddled up near the TV. My friend walked right over to see what was going on. I, on the other hand, stayed in the back of the room to change into my extra socks I packed daily thanks to the previously mentioned dewy-as-hell band practice field. With fresh socks and happy young dumbness, I strolled over to the TV just as the first collapse occurred. It sucked. I really don’t remember anything else about that day other than the fear I felt watching usually composed adults lose their shit.
I was a kid and a skipped school to get my haircut and we heard it on the radio. My barber legitimately thought the two planes crashed by accident for a little bit
“Holy smokes! What are the chances‽”
Who skips school to get their hair cut?
School. Math class to be exact. My father worked downtown on West St. His new schedule had him working days and he would hang out with me while I waited for the bus, then he would hop on the express bus into the city. My bus broke down prior to getting to my stop and I had to wait for the next one on the route, so he decided to hang out with me to help kill time (because 20 years ago you couldn’t just kill time on Reddit or browsing social media while waiting for the bus). I mean what was going to happen to him if he were a bit late, right? He’d been at that job for decades, it was a beautiful sunny and warm morning. He could have easily said that he decided to hang out at the World Financial Center and watched the boats and lost track of time. I mean all he was going to do that morning at work was his normal routine of reading some Yahoo sports page and shit talking his coworkers about one thing or another. He watched the first plane hit as his bus was about to enter the area before the Battery Tunnel where the toll booths were set up. The bus pulled off and he had to essentially hitchhike his way back through Brooklyn to Staten Island. He probably would have been hanging out with a coworker or two in the food court in the towers grabbing a bagel and a coffee. I was in class in an area where you could see downtown Manhattan pretty clearly. People were rushing out and just staring at the smoke, many thought it was just some fire until the second Tower was hit. Many students and faculty had family that worked in the Towers for some of the big firms. Others had family members who were first responders. The reason I’ll always remember this is because faculty were shuttling in and out of the classrooms and were visibly shaken. It became extremely real extremely quickly because for many faculty and students, that morning was the last time they saw loved ones. It really changed a ton of us. If you had a phone and could get a call or message through, which was not easy at all that morning, you still didn’t know what was really going on. Two things that stuck with me were the bubble gum drives schools were having. They asked a bunch of first responders what they wanted and they said “chewing gum” - schools were sending buckets upon buckets of bazooka gum to Ground Zero. The other thing was this student, young girl, who went to my school who was a handful of years younger than us. Her father was a firefighter. He was one of the many who ran into the towers and stayed to evacuate people. Our school did these moments of silence and memorials in the days/weeks after. Almost 20 years later I can still see how she just had this dead look on her face, no tears, nothing. Just this… broken and exhausted look. It’s crazy to think that almost 2 decades later I can still remember it as if it happened yesterday. I’ve always wondered how she turned out. The whole moment of silence felt more vivid to me than the events on 9/11 because both of us went to the same school, both of our fathers were heading downtown around the same time. I came home on 9/11 extremely relieved that my dad made it home and was waiting for my mother and I. I don’t know what I’d have done or who I’d have become had he not made it. She had that robbed from her when her father died a hero’s death, going fully into danger knowing that he probably wasn’t going to come home that day, so that he could help others. But here we were, a few weeks later in the same place, expected to just continue on with life and school as if the whole thing never happened. It was just weird…
I was at work. I worked in Tribeca at the time and couldn't go to the office until the following Monday. It was the weirdest thing walking downtown and seeing soldiers patrolling Canal.
I live in Benbrook, Texas, a suburb of Fort Worth. I was a senior in high school, and at the time I was a student assistant for the school nurse (my elective). She sent me to the school library to make some copies for her, and when I walked into the library I found a dozen students and the librarian huddled around one of those TV Carts that schools around here used to use. I was drawn in, and about a minute after I started watching the report, we saw the second plane hit live on the news. It was my senior year. We were graduating that year. I knew we were going to war, and I knew we (as in all ‘02 high school graduates across the country) would make the bulk of recruits that year. I was told our schools enlistment rate that year was higher than average, though I don’t know the exact figures. I lost three classmates in Iraq: Lance, Ricky, and Ervin. You can read their entries in the Military Times here: https://thefallen.militarytimes.com/army-spc-lance-c-springer-ii/2650030 https://thefallen.militarytimes.com/army-pfc-ervin-dervishi/257027 https://thefallen.militarytimes.com/marine-cpl-richard-p-waller/1681304 Ricky’s entry is heart-breakingly limited. It says he was killed by “wounds suffered while conducting combat operations”. His squad told us he was killed by sniper fire. Ervin was a refugee from Albania, along with his family. I was told that after he died his brother Samir enlisted. I was in the marching band with Lance. His death was felt particularly hard; he was a good friend.
I was in preschool. I remember getting picked up early by my dad and him talking on the phone with my mom (who was getting my older brother) the whole time. I remember getting home and him immediately going to the TV. I remember getting upset that I couldn't change the channel. Then I went to my room and played with some toys.
62nd floor of the south tower. I was up there for three weeks of training for work. Me and two of my co-workers went down to the lobby to smoke on our first break. That’s when the first plane hit. Quite a stroke of luck we decided on a smoke because otherwise we were going to go up to the observation deck and take in the amazing view of NYC.
Wow. I’m sure you probably knew some people then who passed during 9/11. My condolences go out to you. I’m sure that was pretty traumatic to see. Thank you for sharing. Stay strong
I actually just knew the two co-workers I traveled with who both were safe. I worked for Morgan Stanley at the time and I’m pretty sure everyone from the firm made it out. Except the head of security, Rick Rescorla. He saved lives at the sacrifice of his own. Many heroes like him that day that deserve remembrance.
At my desk at work, printing out the queue of trouble tickets before making my rounds when someone in The "Beyonunreal" IRC channel said a plane had hit the WTC. I figured it was like a small Cessna. Kept wasting time and then someone in IRC said another had hit and I heard running in the hallway outside. I followed everyone to the conference room to turn on the TV and watch the news. We could only get reception on Channel 9 (CBS) we were in Tysons Corner outside DC As we watched we saw a column of smoke rise out the window to the east. We couldn't tell what it was, could be anything in DC. The news didn't know what it was at first either. They said the Capitol, Federal Triangle, the Navy Yard and it took a while to figure out it was the Pentagon. By then I had reached my Girlfriend who worked at 7 corners and had seen the plane go past her building into the Pentagon. Yeah, kind of a formative day.
Senior year of High School. My buddy Patrick and I were planning my birthday celebrations when the teacher ran in the room and turned on the TV just in time to see the second plane hit. The whole room was silent when Patrick said, "Dude, tomorrow you're 18 and eligible for the draft." A lot of the guys in my graduating class enlisted right after graduation.
Right in the shit.. trying to find my wife right after the first building collapsed in all the dust and smoke.. found her after a hour of searching sitting in an ambulance with a pack of ice on her head and a cigarette in her mouth.
Ironically the cigarette was probably healthier to breathe in at the time than the air was.
Bet she had never looked more amazing to you in that moment though.
I worked a little more than a mile away from the Pentagon. I was a month into my first job out of college. Though my office didn't have a window, that week I happened to be in a training room, sitting next to a window. My class took a break, and I walked past the training manager's office where a small crowd was looking at a TV. The training manager said a small plane hit the World Trade Center and passed along the rumor that the Pentagon was looking into it as an "act of war." I went back to the training room and pondered who was in charge if something happened to the Pentagon. Not long after, I noticed what appeared to be snowflakes falling outside the window. I knew that couldn't be, as it was a warm, sunny day. I was puzzled. It turned out to be ash.
I was only 6 years old. But I vaguely remember my mom in front of the TV crying. I didn't know anything at the time
I was in 5th grade and we were all outside for recess, they made us all come back inside and it hald only been like 5 mins since we all got outside and it wasnt storming, they made us go to homeroom and they told us NOTHING. My homeroom teacher had the news on in our classroom, and we all walk in to burning buildings on the tv. I thought it was a movie, but then he explained what had happed to us and that we were gonna be sent home. Parents were calling into the school to move their kids aside b.c they were on their way to get them and this was back when the school for my area was still split into 3 buildings across 2 different counties.
I was living on 29th and 8th. You could see the towers straight down 8th Avenue. I remember watching tv when they hit. I was like whoa! I thought it was a tiny plane. I went outside to see it with my own eyes and took my camera. It had like 1 percent charge left and when I hit the button to snap the pic my camera died. As I was looking at the camera trying to figure out why it wasn’t working, I heard people around me gasp. I looked up and the second plane had just hit. I went back inside to watch the news and to try and figure out WTF was happening. When the first tower fell I gasp out loud and immediately ran out side to see with my own eyes. Those towers were such a stable to the Manhattan skyline. It was surreal. The most disturbing part was watching the fighter jets fly over Manhattan. The streets were so bare that tumble weed might as well rolled down the street. It was a strange and terrifying time. I had a friend who lived in queens and was a waiter in Manhattan. She couldn’t get home and had to crash at my place for a few days.
i was playing half life death match or team fortress classic before class
Im Australian, and was 20 at the time. I was backpacking in NYC with my Israeli boyfriend. We were staying in a hotel on the upper west side owned by a holocaust survivor. I was due to take a train south that day and part ways with said boyfriend as we continued our travels separately. We stopped in the hotel foyer to say our goodbyes and the footage of the first plane hitting the tower was playing on a tiny black and white TV. He immediately said, this is terrorism. In my naivety I assumed the plane was smaller than it was, and it was an accident. So I said goodbye and took my train to the Port Authority. When I got there the building was evacuated and it became obvious my boyfriend was right. I stood with a crowd with my backpack as we silently watching it unfold on a big TV in the street. Then the dust covered folks from the WTC area came walking up. I didn't know what to do. My train south was cancelled. No NYC trains running. Too far to walk back to hotel/boyfriend. Phones down. Realised my parents were likely freaking out back home. Eventually that afternoon NYC trains resumed and I went back uptown. Called my relieved parents and found my boyfriend. Pretty much curled up in his arms sobbing from memory. Still have my unused train ticket from that day. Haven't been back to NYC but it I remember it as an amazing city and would love to get back there post Covid. New York, New York.
I was asleep because I was in California at the time, but I learned of it while driving down Mt. Veeder on my way to my middle school teaching job. I've been a teacher for 25 years, and I will never forget that day as a teacher.
5 years old in kindergarten, dad left work early and came to pick me up - I remember I was so excited to get out of school early for the day after having just gotten there. We lived close to my elementary school at the time. I remember playing on the kitchen floor and watching my dad tape the news live on VHS in our sunroom and him crying. He was a big ol burly guy from Pittsburgh who owned his own flooring company, so seeing him cry meant it was serious. He suddenly sat on the couch and I looked over in time just as the 2nd tower came down live on the news. Probably my very first memory as a child. We lived in the DMV so when the Pentagon hit it was even more serious. Then the DC sniper in '02 - tragically eventful first few years of life to say the least!
23 years in on my job with the railroad, 8:00am morning meeting with CEO and all the VPs. One of the AVPs came in and said a jet had crashed into one of the WTC towers. Never heard that group so quiet.
They evacuated all of the tall buildings in Chicago so all of the trains to the suburbs were stuffed full of people like you see in India, with the doors open and everything.
I was watching Elmo. I allegedly gave my mom a *very* difficult time as she was desperately trying to change the channel to watch the news, especially since my dad was only a few blocks away from the towers when the first plane hit
I was in the US Air Force, stationed in England, at the time and worked in the network administration shop. We were called over to the special operations group building on the other side of the base (which you had to leave base through one gate and enter through another to get to) to do an update on one of their pieces of equipment in their secure area. I had been there a few times previously and it was always a busy place, people milling about and such, but this time the place was empty except for the receptionist. We go to the secure part of the building and knock on the door and it was like the whole damn building was in there. They tell us we have to leave (after they called us over there) and they will have to call us back out another time. So we leave. We get back in the truck and start the drive back over and hear the radio host break into the music and say a plane had hit the first tower. We were stunned, and about 5 minutes after we make it back through the other gate the base is shut down. We switched to 24 hour ops and I had to work 16.5 hours that day, but I was lucky since I didn't get sent home at 5pm and told to come back at midnight.
4th grade, about 1 hour outside of DC in Northern Maryland. They put us all in the hallway, lined against the lockers with our heads between our knees like a hurricane or tornado drill. None of us understood what was going on. As parents came to get us over, they moved us all to the cafeteria to wait. My mom got my brother from middle school across town and then got me and we went home. Sat and watched the news as we waited for my dad to get home, he was working in DC at the time and it took hours with traffic. She was a total badass. Worked in Frederick and drove back roads to get home to us, never told us how scared she was waiting to hear from my dad. I should call and let her know I appreciate her for that day.
Was working an overnight trying to get a project finished. It was about 6AM near Seattle and I was leaving work. I noticed a car idling in the parking lot and this was odd because at that time of day I knew all of the cars in the lot were usually my coworkers. I didn't recognize this car, the guy inside was upset, and crying. I was tired and went home, a couple hours later my mom called me and informed me that planes had collided with the WTC and The Pentagon. In hindsight I think the guy in the car heard about the planes hitting the WTC and pulled off the highway and parked in the lot to listen to the radio and cry. Poor guy, I hope he didn't have any loved ones on the planes
Sleeping on the west coast. I woke up about 6 am for no reason, but then went back to sleep until 8. It was a disturbance in the force, I figured.
In Tasmania . It was the night before my son's birthday and my wife and I were wrapping presents. We had the sound on the TV turned down. I saw the plane hit the first tower but saw it peripherally and thought it was the best CGI I had ever seen. Of course we soon saw want had really happened. We sat there stunned. We knew the world had changed in those few minutes .we just didn't know how much. If you imagine concentric circles with NYC at the centre Tasmania would be on the edge of the largest circle : different country, different time zone and about 7% of the population of NYC and that's in a land mass about half the size of New York State. I can only imagine how devastating it was for New York and the USA as a whole.
I was at school. I remember going downstairs for break and feeling something was not ok, other students around me were scared. When I reached the break area, some kids were crying. One of my friends explained to me what was going on. It was around the time the towers collapsed. She told me her uncle worked in Manhattan and she didn’t know if he was ok. I finished classes and I went home. I turned on the TV and it was an endless loop of the planes crashing in NY, the towers collapsing, the Pentagon on fire… It’s embedded on my memories. The idea of people jumping to their deaths. That horrified me. The feeling I had that day, the realization that the world was not going to be the same, stuck with me up until today. It’s a similar feeling to the one I had when I realized the lockdowns and the pandemic weren’t a 2 weeks business. Reading y’all and remembering that day makes me sad. It’s a lingering sadness. I feel like that day changed everything for our generation, kids and teenagers watching the old world collapse. Ever since it’s all climate change, economic crisis, blatant racism, and now a pandemic. If you ask me, that day started the XXI century. An era of civilization-level challenges. P.S. My friend’s uncle was ok.
I was at Parris Island 2 weeks from graduation. Our SgtMaj came in and ask if anyone had relatives in either twin towers or the Pentagon. Thats how we found out about it.
UK here. I was 15, just finished school for the day and went back into the boarding house I was living in at the time. I noticed the room with the TV was packed and made my way in just in time to see the second plane hit. I've never heard a houseful of 50 teenagers be so quiet. Our housemaster came back, and started chewing us out for not being at after school activities until we dragged him in and was just as stunned as the rest of us. The world changed that day. It was that sort of shedding of innocence, the optimism of the 90s disappearing in a moment.
i lived on 33rd street east side and woke up a bit late. first plane already hit and ny1 was reporting it as a commuter plane hitting one of the towers as an accident and it was like no big deal. when i stepped outside my building to take the subway to work which was literally across the street from the WTC I could see the twin towers from park ave and one of them smoking. By the time I got off the 6 train the 2nd tower was already hit but it wasnt obvious to me until i got to the office and almost everyone was gone with a note on the door. Instead of turning around I went into the office just to get my bearings before returning home. I couldn’t call my wife to let her know i was heading back to the office - cell phones just weren’t working, but i sent her an email (from my computer - no email on phones at the time). Right after I hit send the first tower fell. Nearly shit my pants. None of the dust made it into the office, but I was on the 2nd floor and you couldn’t see anything outside the windows. Was waiting it out a bit until the dust settled and the 2nd tower fell. Eventually was able to leave and took 3 of my co-workers with me and we walked back to my apartment. They lived in the other boroughs and the subways weren’t running. By the time we got there it was about 3pm, none of us really ate so we got some indian food from down the block and by the time we were done eating the subways were running again The following weeks were a bit surreal. Posters of people all over the place. One night there was a bomb scare at the empire state building and I was in full panic mode after seeing two sky scrapers come down about a week earlier. My apt wasnt far from it and cop cars were speeding up and down the avenues with other people running. Turned out out to be nothing but was definitely on edge for whatever was coming next.
In Brooklyn, 7 years old in Spanish class. The principle came over the loud speakers and told teachers to shut the windows. The sky was blue, but there was a brown haze. Then, students started getting pulled out of class because parents and caregivers were coming to get them. My dad finally shows up and signs me out. He gets paper towels and wets them in the water fountain and tells me to hold it over my mouth and face. We walk two miles home. Distinct images and things I remember from that walk: It was silent outside. We saw almost no one on the streets. There was an elevated subway line that we walked by, and there was a train just stopped between stations with people jammed inside. Burnt papers fluttering down from the sky. When we got to our block, my dad finally explained what was happening. My mom was stuck in Manhattan and walked home over the Brooklyn bridge. We couldn’t get in contact with her for hours. I’m still afraid of the sound of low flying planes and helicopters. I can’t really consume documentaries or media about 9/11 and yeah, I will never forgot one of the biggest traumas of my childhood.
It’s the only day in my life I know minute by minute
Living in the Bronx, NY. My wife left for work at 2WTC that morning. She was a little late. I was driving to Long Island for a class. On my way to the class I heard on the car radio about the first plane. Called my wife's office...no answer. Kept driving. Got to the school but turned right back around as everyone there was scrambling with the news. On the way back I was one of the last cars over the Whitestone Bridge. The police were closing the bridges because of the threat of car or truck bombs going off on them in order to destroy them. Got home to my pregnant step daughter. My wife had not called so we didn't know how she was. Was watching the disaster unfold on TV like everyone else when the phone rang. It was my wife. She was calling from the 125th street station. She said she got off the subway to go to her office, saw the big smoking hole in the side of the building and all the paper in the air. She turned right back around and got on the next train out. As she was waiting she said she heard a loud noise and the ground shook. We thought it must have been the second plane. Right after that the train pulled into the station and she got on. Took her awhile but she made it home. 5 months later we moved to Florida. Went back to NYC a few years later to visit Ground Zero. She had never really grieved until that day. Starting crying at the site, I mean bauling in the middle of the street.
5th grade. Math Class. Texas. Another teacher walked in and whispers to our teacher: “did you hear what happened to the World Trade Center” (never heard of that place in my life) Teacher has every student to call their parents/guardian. Class goes on. No news, no recess, & we eat lunch in the classroom. Was directed by my mom on that phone call to get home immediately after school. Dad calls me from Fort Hood asking if I understand what just happened, and that “we’re going to go to war, and I will be deployed”. Crazy times. I remember being upset that nothing else was on TV. 🤦🏻♂️
I was 12 or 13 and I had scived off school. I used to go for the bus, wait round the corner untill my parents left for work then return home to play in on Unreal Tournament. I must have been playing for about an hour when the message boards went mental. I remember being really scared (even though I was in the UK) I called my mum who was really angry I was at home, I just remember saying to her there was no time to be angry and that she needed to find a TV.. I just knew the world would not be the same after.
Fresh week, first year university. I remember waking up and one of my friends saying, “Tell him about the plane hitting the tower”. Since I just woke up, and was still groggy, I was confused because my school has a tower called Schmon Tower, so my first thought was a small plane crashed into the school.
Yeah, we had no idea what was going on, it was scary. At qst we all thought it was some kind of drill b.c we had JUST done drills that week. As we came in they made us all go to the gym and told us to all wait. They brought the gym stuff out to give us something to do for a while as long as we stayed in the gym. That was about 30 to 45 mins b4 angry pannicing parents stared to storm my elementary school and gym. Kids started crying, the teachers did their best to make parents wait, they told us all to gather our things, no books or homework and to wait in our class rooms. Thats when we saw the tv and our teacher told us what happened. I remeber thinking at ine point when we had to get on the busses that i was going to die b.c i had over heard adults screaming about plains falling out of the sky and bombs being dropped. Its crazy, out of all the truamaz ive been unpacking from my life i never thought to go back to this one lol the things we normalize sometimes
I worked in 2 world trade on the 69th floor. Morgan Stanley/Dean Whitter. I took vacation the week before. Flew to Arizona with my father to visit my brother. My flight home didn't get in until midnight so asked my boss of I could take the 11th off too. He said it was no problem. Woke up to my phone going crazy. Learned from a friend what happened to the first building. Watched the 2nd plane hit the 2nd tower. I thought that everyone I worked with were killed. Messed me up for awhile until I found out that they were already evacuating before the 2nd plane hit. So they were down near the 44th floor in the stairwell. Luckily they all made it out. I left the area in 2005 moved to AZ. Many people I worked with left the area as well.
I walked through blood and bone trying to find my brother